Howard Duff and Bill Spier hammer out
a script with Spier's wife June Havoc looking on.

Lurene Tuttle and Howard Duff at the
CBS Mike for Sam Spade, ca. 1947

The Bakersfield Californian of January
4th 1948 announces a guest appearance
of Sam Spade on The Joan Davis Show

Effie and Sam, in character
ca. 1948

Sam Spade comics advertising Wildroot Cream Oil sprang up for several years in comic books and Sunday newspapers.

Fearless Fosdick Barber Sign, ca. 1954

Al Capp's Fearless Fosdick

Former Republican Congressman J. Parnell Thomas, after being released
from prison, ca. 1954 [Life Magazine]

Red Channels Periodical, ca. 1952

1950Broken Leg Stops Spade
HOLLYWOOD, Oct. 31.(INS) Howard Duff, the Sam Spade of radio, faced a 3-month layoff from his screen and radio work today as a result of a fractured right leg. The actor fell down the stairs at his home.

FILM RIGHTS TIED UPHoward Duff is still anxious to play his radio character, Sam Spade, on the screen. But the film rights are tied up by a suit brought by. Warner Brothers. The studio claims prior rights to the character, having introduced him in "The Maltese Falcon."

Neither Howard Duff or any other star will be playing Sam Spade on the screen. Warners claims Sam belongs to them and has tied up the character through litigation. . . .

More to the point, here's Howard Duff's contemporaneous observations--in his own words--about the premature demise of Sam Spade, Detective, from the Tuesday, October 10, 1950 Edition of The Bakersfield Californian:

HOLLYWOOD, Oct. 10. (AP) -- "I'm sorry Sam couldn't show up. He's not very reliable, you know. Probably out on a case."
This was Howard Duff jesting about Sam Spade, the radio sleuth Duff has been playing on the air. He admitted a little lonely without Sam, from whom he parted company three weeks ago. The program was yanked off the air.
"It was very simple," Duff explained. "The sponsor wanted a cheaper show."
But what seemed like a simple cancellation of an air show has created something of a furor. The sponsor has reportedly been flooded with a wave of letters, many of them of a threatening nature. The NBC offices here have received protest letters executives say total 45,000, with other parts of the network not yet counted.
NBC, which has no further connection with the show, is reportedly peeved over what to do with the mail. The network was further upset by zealous members of the Howard Duff Fan Club, which set up a picket protest at the studio after Sam Spade was cancelled.
All this amazes and no doubt delights Duff, who confesses an affection for his late friend, Spade.
"I'd hate to see the old boy die off forever," he remarked. "After all, we've been together four and a half years without a vacation or Summer layoff. You can grow fond of a person in that time."
Not to mention the moola which the weekly show brought in. And Duff can credit Spade for bringing him to film fame. He was just another free-lance radio actor when he tried out for the show. Much to his surprise, he landed the role.
His radio fame led him to the movies, and the late Mark Hellinger picked him for "Brute Force" and "The Naked City." He caught on with the bobbysocked crowd and currently leads at least one of the movie magazine popularity polls.
Duff said he hoped to return to the air with Spade, but he has his doubts. Radio is still suffering from the TV jitters and many another top show is languishing without a sponsor.
"Any sponsor who buys Sam will want the TV rights, too," he said.
I can't get tied down to a weekly TV show and do pictures. That would interfere with the deal."
Also, there is a legal snag. Warner Brothers has sued to stop the air show. Sam Spade is the character Humphrey Bogart played in "The Maltese Falcon" and the studio claims it owns all rights. The case has not yet been settled.
Sam has been the most popular private eye on the air and Duff offered his theory: "I think it's because Sam doesn't take himself seriously. He can always see the humor in a situation.
"Still, he can be tough when he needs to be. He's a man of extremes. When he's in good spirits, he's higher than anyone. But when he's low, there's nobody lower.
Ah, I'll miss him," sighed Duff, and I thought I saw a tear drop into his cup of black coffee.

After the cancellation of 'Sam Spade,' Howard Duff, who confessed an affection for his late friend Sam, remarked "I'd hate to see the old boy die off forever."

And so effectively ended one of Radio's most heralded and beloved Golden Age Radio Programs. Dashiell Hammett enjoyed a relatively brief dalliance with Hollywood for just over seventeen years on and off. During that period his Maltese Falcon was brought to the big screen three times:

1931's The Maltese Falcon with Ricardo Cortez as Sam Spade, Bebe Daniels as 'Ruth Wonderly' (among other colorful aliases), scary looking Walter Long as the ill-fated Miles Archer, Una Merkel as Effie, and Dudley Digges as Casper Gutman. While briefly renamed 'Dangerous Female' once it came to Television, it has since reverted to its original The Maltese Falcon by its current owners, Turner Classic Movies.

1936's Satan Met A Lady, directed by William Dieterle, and starring Warren William as 'Ted Shane' (Sam Spade), Bette Davis as Valerie Purvis (among other colorful aliases), Arthur Treacher as Anthony Travers (Joel Cairo), Allison Skipworth as Madame Barrabas (Kasper Gutman), Maynard Holmes as 'Kenneth' (Wilmer Cook), and Marie Wilson as Miss Murgatroyd (Effie). A rather transparently veiled send up to The Maltese Falcon, it's pretty much a calculatedly out of control farce version of Hammett's classic.

1941's classic The Maltese Falcon, directed by John Huston, screenplay by both John Huston and Dashiell Hammett, and starring Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade, Mary Astor as Brigid O'Shaughnessey (among other colorful aliases), Sydney Greenstreet as Kasper Gutman, Peter Lorre as Joel Cairo, Elisha Cook, Jr. as Wilmer Cook and Ward Bond as Detective Polhaus. This is considered the definitive The Maltese Falcon.

The Radio version of Sam Spade came to the airwaves in the Summer of 1946 as a Summer replacement for the popular Woody Herman Show. Titled The Adventures of Sam Spade, Detective, Radio's Sam Spade was interpreted by young Howard Duff, a relative newcomer to Network Radio. And although Duff was a relative novice in a featured Network role, he was supported by no less than 'Radio's First Lady', Lurene Tuttle as Effie Perrine and legendary Radio Director William Spier, who'd already made a name for himself with the equally legendary and timeless Suspense series. Gil Doud, Robert Tallman, William Spier, Jason James [as Jo Eisinger], Elliot Lewis, E. Jack Neuman, and Howard Swanton took the writers' credits over the years, fashioning Radio's Sam Spade as a cross between Ricardo Cortez's rogueish Spade and Warren William's wise-cracking, over-the-top Ted Shane from 1936's Satan Met A Lady. Indeed, although the series had a markedly humorous, tongue-in-cheek slant, most of the mysteries--or 'capers'--presented during the production run were wonderfully twisty, convoluted who-dun-its in their own right. There were several other competing, similarly entertaining detective mysteries on Radio at the time. What set Sam Spade apart from most of them was the wonderful interplay between Howard Duff and Lurene Tuttle, masterfully timed and paced by William Spier. And though not characteristically noted for his comedic timing, Spier's crisp, fast-moving direction never truly allowed the occasional slapstick or Tuttle-Duff exchanges to sidetrack the arc of the script.

The equally entertaining Let George Do It allowed for a great deal of wise-cracking and droll humor between George Valentine and his own 'Effie', Brooksie. George and Brooksie had a more intentionally romantic slant to their relationship, whereas Effie Perrine had always pretty much reconciled herself to Sam Spade's philandering, while still holding a torch for him. Indeed, Effie's endearing loyalty and concern for Sam became an integral element of the underlying humor of the production as she indefatigably attempts to reform her reprobate employer.

Lurene Tuttle is never more of a scene-stealer than in The Adventures of Sam Spade, Detective. And professionally generous to a fault, her on-air self-deprecation, feigned witlessness and blind adoration of Sam Spade, create an unprecedented opportunity for Howard Duff to shine as her drunken, morally and economically challenged scoundrel of a boss. But in yet another perfect marriage of character to actor, Howard Duff manages to pull it all off, despite his character's scurrilous proclivities. By the end of every episode he somehow finds his conscience, solves the mystery at issue, and redeems himself in time to say, "Goodnight, Sweetheart"--and appear to sincerely mean it.

The magic combination of Tuttle, Spier and Duff was virtually guaranteed to gain an unprecedentedly loyal audience. Duff, despite his character's wanton moral abandon, continued to charm his audiences for over 220 episodes. Ever the archetypal bad-boy as Sam Spade, Howard Duff's natural charm and irrepressible Irish humor elevated both his role and his career opportunities with each passing year of Sam Spade's production run. But Tuttle, Duff and Spier didn't work their magic in a vacuum. The program's brilliant writers provided consistently intelligent, wonderfully humorous, and engaging material for their stars and director.

William Spier and Howard Duff in rehearsal for
The Adventures of Sam Spade, Detective

It's quite obvious from almost every episode that the production staff loved their work. One can find an audible break of one kind or another in almost every episode. Either the cast didn't have to rehearse that much or the scripts were so funny and well-timed that even after rehearsing they couldn't help but break each other up on air. This is a delicate balance, to be sure. If overdone, it can become a distraction to the listening audience. But Spier seems to have created the perfect environment in which to allow such occasional professional lapses to play themselves out, without interfering with the timing of his scripts. Given both Lurene Tuttle and Howard Duff's inherent personal charm and good humor, their occasional lapses soon became an anticipated feature of most of their episodes together. Somewhat like the 'Easter Eggs' DVD enthusiasts of today have come to demand from their viewing favorites.

Keep in mind that this was, for the most part, live radio. While often transcribed for airing in different time zones, the basic production didn't make allowance for any but the most drastic re-cuts or edits between recording session and broadcast. The program's most avid fans came to expect these charming, spontaneous lapses from their two favorite stars. Over the years, their scripted--and unscripted--interplay only endeared them even further to their rapidly growing audience.It's also quite apparent that the various supporting casts over the years enjoyed their appearances on Sam Spade with equal zeal. Broadcast from the West Coast for almost the entire run, the predominately West Coast actor pool provided a wealth of talent to the productions. Radio legends Olan Soulé, Bea Benadaret, Hans Conreid, Elliott Lewis, Paul Frees, Junius Matthews, William Conrad, Jack Webb, Frank Lovejoy, Tudor Owen, Wally Maher, Dick Powell, Jerry Hausner, Cathy Lewis, Joseph Kearns, Jeanette Nolan, Mary Jane Croft, Betty Lou Gerson, and Elliott Reid supported the production over the years. Indeed, appearances by William Spier' wives Kay Thompson and June Havoc, Peter Lorre, and Lurene Tuttle's daughter, Barbara Ruick (while still a teenager) were among several fascinating, uncredited contributions to the series over the years. To say a good time was had by all, understates the experience. The on-air staff's pranks extended to even their legendary announcer, Dick Joy, upon whom several attempts were made over the years to flummox one of Radio's most professional announcers--to no avail.

Such was the environment that William Spier created for his cast and crew--and for his listening audience as well. The good humor extended to their sponsor, Wildroot Cream Oil, whose emblematic jingle had become part and parcel of every broadcast they sponsored. As equally associated with Fearless Fosdick as Sam Spade, their advertising campaign featured both fearless sleuths in a series of equally entertaining and engaging comic strips over the years of their sponsorship. Reportedly aired live during each episode, The Wildroot Barbershop Quartet's lively performances of "It's Wildroot Cream Oil, Charlie" remain one of the campier elements of each commercial broadcast.

From the November 9th 1946 edition of the Harrisburg Telegraph:

"The Kandi Tooth Caper" will be solved by Dashiell Hammett's favorite private eye on "The Adventures of Sam Spade" in a two-part presentation. The first part will be given on Sunday, November 10, and the second on Sunday, November 17, at 8 p.m. over WHP. Let it be understood from the start that "The Kandi Tooth Caper" is not about somebody gone berserk in the sugar shortage. It is about a missionary who is found murdered. Oddly enough, his slayers removed a denture from his mouth. Sam Spade learns that the missionary had acquired the "Kandi Tooth" while laboring among natives in some South Pacific islands. The "Kandi Tooth" is a legendary relic revered by the islanders. The missionary escaped with the "Kandi Tooth" by having it placed in a denture. He was obviously murdered to recover the relic and to fulfill a tribal prophecy. Spade, who is experienced in dealing with more hardened characters, is stumped by this exotic crime. Sam's reading is usually limited to a racing sheet, but by boning up on a little anthropology he solves "The Kandi Tooth Caper."

And from his December 3rd 1946 Radio Review column in The Repository, John Crosby chimes in as well:

The curtain had just risen on the Sam Spade program (CBS 9 p.m. Sundays), when Spade's secretary got a phone call from the boss, who, it appears, was in jail charged with murder.
"Bring a pencil and $20,000 down to the jail at once" he commanded.
"Sam," she protested, "where will I find a pencil at this hour? What are you doing in jail, anyway?"
"My apartment's being redecorated, toots."
That is not the sort of bad image you and I would employ in a fairly serious situation but it's hardly surprising to find Spade behaving that way. Dashiell Hammett, who still writes the Spade series, started this offhand sort of talk back in 1934 when he hit the big time with "The Thin Man." He is now the most widely imitated detective story writer on earth and the casual attitude toward homicide has become established as good manners among all plain-clothes cops.
Hammett has always taken a detached and rather cold view of human life. His great detective stories, "The Thin Man," "The Maltese Falcon" and "The Glass Key," rang with authenticity because of it. Now, however, the imitators have so crowded the field that Hammett is beginning to sound like one of them. The great virtue of the Sam Spade series is that it's still written by the old master, and once in a while even sounds like it.
The effectiveness of his dialogue (and the above is a rather bad sample) is heightened by his trick of playing against one another a widely divergent crew of characters.

GUTMAN REVIVED

Besides Spade, who can still break a man's thumb without effort or remorse, Hammett recently resuscitated Casper Gutman. Gutman, you will recall, was the elegant and unscrupulous hunk of blubber who chased the Maltese Falcon half way around the world in 1931. At the end of that book, he was dumped into San Francisco Bay, and we were all under the impression that he didn't survive the experience. Well, he did and he's back, still talking his curious 19th century prose. ("And now, sir, if you are so disposed, shall we talk?")
Wilmer, the baby-faced murderer, was not revived for the occasion but Gutman has brought along his brother, an equally furious youngster. There is also a strange young man who says at one point to Spade: "At my hotel, there is a mildewed character who accuses me of acting without charm."

OH, IT SPARKLES!

Says Spade in return: "You better get out of California before Walt Disney sees you." a decidedly arresting remark to hear on the air. These odd people were all taken from Life, surprising as that may seem. Hammett in his days as a private detective with the Pinkerton agency mixed with a lot of people whom you and I are not likely to encounter in our lifetime. In his books, they had great individual flavor. You never quite knew what they were going to do next. By now, however, they've been reused as often as a paper clip and are getting a little bent and rusty.
Just the same, if you like detective stories of the hard-boiled school, Sam Spade is your best bet. Hammett, incidentally, is still interested in ancient art. The Maltese Falcon has disappeared forever, I guess, but this time Gutman and crew are after the Kandy Tooth, which is right out of Buddah's mouth and is presumably even more valuable than the Falcon. When I last listened, they were still looking.

Copyright, 1946, for the Tribune

And from January 7th 1947 edition of the Williamsburg Journal-Tribune:

Cindy's young "crime detectors" are very enthusiastic about Dashiell Hammett's "The Adventures of Sam Spade" which airs at 7:00 p. m. every Sunday over WMT. This exciting mystery program stars Howard Duff as Sam Spade and he has become so identifed with that personality that he's in danger of losing his own identity. Fans hear him on other programs and write about the wonderful performance Sam Spade, not Howard Duff, gave.

Experts write in about the program. One lady dentist, after hearing "The Kandy Tooth" episode wrote, citing a case in which a university professor of dental anatomy had done ingenius detective work. A ballistics expert sent in statistics and graphs to show the force of recoil of a weapon necessary to knock over a midget. That was a key point in "The Midway Caper." And so it goes. The experts as well as the amateurs are right there with suggestions and advice. If you like clever, original, keep-you-guessing mysteries, you'll like "The Adventures of Sam Spade." In his picture it looks as though Sam Spade, I mean Howard Duff, can take care of himself as well as any given situation, doesn't it? Lurene Tuttle, one of Hollywood's busiest radio actresses, is heard as Effie Perrine, Spade's secretary. Shw will make her motion picture debut soon in "Heaven Only Knows."

From the September 25th 1949 edition of the Kingsport Times-News:

Sam Spade, license number 137596, seldom tells the police all he knows. Sam's the sharp-talking crafty private eye, originated by Dashiell Hammett, and portrayed on the air by Howard Duff. And the Adventures of Sam Spade, coming to WKPT and NBC tonight at 8 for a new Sunday night series, promise plenty of thrills and chills.

Howard Duff, in the title role, has played Sam Spade on the air ever since the series started in 1946. A Bremerton, Washington native, Duff at one time was a window-trimmer in a Seattle department store. The theater was his ambition, and a Seattle radio station gave him his first job . . . not acting, but announcing. He worked there during the day, and acted in Shakespearean dramas with the Repertory Playhouse in the evening, without pay.

That was the beginning. Now, Duff divides his time between radio and films, and is currently being seen in a movie about Sam Spade. On the air, his co-star on the Sunday night show will be Miss Lurene Tuttle, as the ever-essential secretary.

From the January 15th 1950 Baton Rouge Advocate:

Digging up a murder case almost nearly lands Sam Spade six feet underground in "The Phantom Witness Caper" on "The Adventures of Sam Spade," this evening at 7 p.m. over WJBO-WBRI. Howard Duff stars as Sam Spade on this NBC program.
Two years ago, Spade had a client, Eddie McBride, who was accused of murdering his sweetheart, Julie Van Etten. Eddie hired Spade to find a certain witness to prove his innocence. This witness, an unknown man, had seen Eddie enter Julie's room after she was murdered. However, Spade was unable to find the witness and Eddie was convicted of the crime. On the night when "The Phantom Witness Caper" begins, Spade receives a call from Eddie at San Quentin. Eddie tells Spade that he has just seen the witness on the warden's television set, watching the wrestling matches at Dreamland auditorium. Thus begins another Sam Spade adventure to thrill mystery fans on JBO-WBRI.

Wildroot Cream Oil's relationship with The Adventures of Sam Spade, Detective was all roses and champagne until one of Sam Spade's scripts made a passing reference to a notoriously corrupt, Right-Wing Republican Congressional Representative from New Jersey. Thomas, famous for scanning the newspapers for any percieved slight to him or his committee, undertook an 'investigation' of members of The Adventures of Sam Spade, Detective production company. An archetypal conflicted right-winger, J. Parnell Thomas employed the tried and true right-wing tactic of diverting attention from one's own corrupt dealings by pointing to imagined, fabricated misdeeds of others. In this case, his targets were 'Sam' Hammett and by implication, Howard Duff himself. At the same time, investigative journalists Drew Pearson and Jack Anderson were undertaking investigations of their own--into Thomas' own corruption problems.

Hammett had already made many very public, deprecatory observations regarding J. Parnell Thomas' right-wing machinations, as well as those of the witch-hunting House Un-American Activities Committee. The HUAC, one of the Right-Wing's more shameful and outlandish 'strawman' witch hunts over the years, was comprised of some of Congress' most sexually conflicted, corrupt, and morally compromised politicians, aides and henchmen who ever gained public office. They exercised their growing power through intimidation, fabricating 'evidence' and outright libel and slander. Duff's efforts in support of labor unions were conflated by the HUAC through their influence over "Red Channels", American History's most cowardly, shameful, and opaque 'blacklist'. Once a performer's name made an appearance in Red Channels, no amount of genuine rebuttal could erase the taint on his or her career. Even though the damage to Howard Duff and The Adventures of Sam Spade had already been planted by J. Parnell Thomas, The American Legion [Black Shirt Chapter] and the HUAC, it took Wildroot a year to weigh its 'options'. Apparently feeling that their shiny, slicked-back hair demographic was at risk with further sponsorship of The Adventures of Sam Spade, they ruminated over either cancelling Sam Spade outright or undertaking another Detective Drama with which to retain the same audience. They decided to do both. Wildroot, to its shame, ultimately canceled Sam Spade, citing Dashiell Hammett's 'creator' credit and Howard Duff's starring role. Determined to shift their sponsorship to "Charlie Wild, Detective", Wildroot decided to abandon The Adventures of Sam Spade, Detective entirely. Citing layer upon layer of nonsensical reasons for the series' abrupt cancellation, NBC was understandably deluged with a reported 45,000 to 250,000 demands for the show's reinstatement. But by that time, Howard Duff had wisely moved on to a more fulfilling--and financially predictable--Film career.

In an fitting twist, J. Parnell Thomas was brought down at about the same time that Wildroot was approaching NBC about cancelling the program. The House Republican Steering Committee predictably dragged out any sanctions or investigation of Thomas for most of 1949, but a Grand Jury was eventually seated. Thomas was tried and convicted to 18 months in prison for carrying personnel on his Congressional payroll while depositing their pay in his own accounts, and Thomas resigned from Congress in January of 1950, only days before he was to begin his prison sentence at Danbury. In a further, predictable Right-Wing twist, Thomas had taken the Fifth throughout his trial, much the same as Dashiell Hammett had attempted to when he was brought before Thomas's HUAC. In the case of the HUAC, they simply refused to accept a Fifth Ammendment election from Hammett. But the trial of J. Parnell Thomas correctly accepted his Fifth Amendment election, while ultimately convicting him anyway.

News article of October 11th 1950 cites Sam Spade fans' dissatisfaction
with the cancellation of The Adventures of Sam Spade

Indeed, some Radio historians cite the cancellation of Sam Spade as the beginning of the end of The Golden Age of Radio. When it became obvious that the political machinations of fringe right-wingers could bring down a program as popular as Sam Spade it marked a major sea-change in the rapidly eroding public ownership of the public airwaves. NBC finally bowed to the unprecedented public demand to reinstate Sam Spade and aired The New Adventures of Sam Spade, Detective two months after its cancellation as The Adventures of Sam Spade, Detective--less its sponsor and star. West Coast NBC up-and-comer Steve Dunne was cast as Howard Duff's replacement. But as even the show's most ardent fans would admit, the show could never have been the same again without the Howard Duff/Lurene Tuttle magic. The program limped along for another twenty-four episodes before its ultimate demise.

Local Southern California actor Steve Dunne was tapped to replace
Howard Duff when Sam Spade was resurrected in The New Adventures
of Sam Spade in November of 1950.

The Adventures of Sam Spade, Detective remains one of the most popular programs from The Golden Age of Radio. While there are only a fifth of the Sam Spade production programs in circulation, a few previously uncirculated episodes make their way into circulation every few years. One can only hope that all of them will eventually be released by their holders. There's no question that they exist. Consumer recording and transcription equipment was readily available throughout the production run. It's just a matter of time, greed, and conscience before the remainder of the recorded episodes find their way back to the public that popularized them in the first place.

As can be noted in the detailed log below, NBC wasn't quite sure if they'd resurrect The Adventures of Sam Spade as late as July of 1951, but as history has proven, there was no further resurrection of the production.

Well, Howard, you got your wish. Sam Spade lives on in the hearts and minds of the millions of Golden Age Radio fans who still listen to and treasure this classic Golden Age Radio program even more now than when it first aired.

Notes on Provenances: All above cited provenances are in error in one form or another. The most helpful provenances were the logs of the RadioGOLDINdex and Audio-Classics and newspaper listings. The least helpful were the Hickerson Guide and Martin Grams' Radio Drama.

There are little more than a fifth of The Adventures of Sam Spade, Detective programs in circulation. Any authoritative representations as to true program titles, preemptions, or sequencing have to be taken at face value for the forseeable future. Beware of anyone claiming to have a complete and accurate log of Sam Spade. The logs below represent our best and latest updates. There are several outstanding anomalies in the record of the production run. Where we have marginal confidence as to their validity we've employed either a 'strikeout' font or a neutral highlight font to indicate them.

As has often occured lately in the preparation of our 'Definitive' series of logs, corrected title revisions are frankly too numerous to individually cite. Indeed, with only about a fifth of the production programs in circulation any more definitive sequencing or title resolution will have to wait until far more espisodes enter circulation.

You're welcome to compare our fully provenanced research with the OTRR and their own Sam Spade log, which they claim to be correct according to their 'OTTER log'. We've therefore provided a screen shot of their current log for comparison, HERE to protect our own ongoing due diligence.

OTRisms:

Here's the reality of collecting an historic vintage Radio program that's little more than a fifth in circulation and was denatured and retranscribed by the Armed Forces Radio Service (or the later Armed Forces Radio and Television Service):

Every vintage Radio collector is free to decide to delude himself or herself and 'pretend' that denatured AFRS or AFRTS transcriptions are the same as commerical transcriptions or off-air recordings--or not.

The OTRR has made a corporate decision (and yes the OTRR is an owned, profit making, commercial enterprise) to universally 'pretend' that AFRS and AFRTS transcriptions are the same as original commercial recordings. They then mislead everyone who downloads from their 'certified collections' or other holdings and 'distros.'

Genuine Golden Age Radio preservationists highly prize their growing collection of entirely unique AFRS and AFRTS transcriptions and recordings, marveling at the dedication, quality, and sacrifice those two Government organizations undertook to preserve this national treasure.

Self-deception and self-delusion can become highly tempting, given the right mix of circumstances. The current state of vintage Radio collecting, as embodied by 'otr' at least, shows that contagion to be a pandemic.

Among the many travesties contained within the OTRR's 'certified accurate' Sam Spade collection are several intentionally deceptive recordings:

Recordings 'padded out' with as much as seven to nine minutes of dead silence to make the AFRS transcription they were derived from 'appear' to be the expected length of an as-broadcast transcription or recording.

No disclosure whatsoever as to the true derivation of the recordings in their collection, so as to give the appearance of having twelve more circulating as-broadcast recordings than actually exist. Almost 20% of the Adventures of Sam Spade, Detective recordings in circulation are denatured AFRS 'Sam Spade' transcriptions--including the OTRR's.

No specific disclosures whatsoever, as to the true provenance(s) upon which they base their log.

What you see here, is what you get. Complete transparency. We have no 'credentials' whatsoever--in any way, shape, or form--in the 'otr community'--none. But here's how we did it--for better or worse. Here's how you can build on it yourselves--hopefully for the better. Here's the breadcrumbs--just follow the trail a bit further if you wish. No hobbled downloads. No misdirection. No posturing about our 'credentials.' No misrepresentations. No strings attached. We point you in the right direction and you're free to expand on it, extend it, use it however it best advances your efforts.

We ask one thing and one thing only--if you employ what we publish, attribute it, before we cite you on it.

We continue to provide honest research into these wonderful Golden Age Radio programs simply because we love to do it. If you feel that we've provided you with useful information or saved you some valuable time regarding this log--and you'd like to help us even further--you can help us keep going. Please consider a small donation here:

We don't pronounce our Golden Age Radio research as 'certified' anything. By the very definition, research is imperfect. We simply tell the truth. As is our continuing practice, we provide our fully provenanced research results--to the extent possible--right here on the page, for any of our peers to review--or refute--as the case may be. If you take issue with any of our findings, you're welcome to cite any better verifiable source(s) and we'll immediately review them and update our findings accordingly. As more verifiable provenances surface, we'll continue to update the following series log, as appropriate.

All rights reserved by their respective sources. Article and log copyright 2009 The Digital Deli Online--all rights reserved. Any failure to attribute the results of this copywritten work will be rigorously pursued.

"The" Fat Man" is heard each Monday night at 8:30 o'clock, "I Deal in Crime" 'Starring William Gargan as Ralph Dolan appears Monday night at 9 o'clock and every Friday night at 9 o'clock is the Adventures of Sam Spade. All of the last three mystery thrillers are written by Dashiell Hammett. All programs "fire carried by ABC and KFDA.

45-07-19 Anniston Star
Dashiell Hammett's favorite character, Sam Spade, again comes to life when the two-fisted detective solves one of the famous author's pet killings, "The Farewell Murders," tonight at 9 o'clock over ABC and WHMA.

46-07-26

3

Too Many Have Lived

N

9 p. m.  Sam Spade's Adventures (WENR): "Too Many Have Lived."

Adventures of Sam Spade
8:00 P. M. "Too Many Have Lived" Dashiell Hammett's famous story, is dramatized tonight as Spade searches for a book of poems and a philandering publisher.

Adventures of Sam Spade 8:00 P.M. Dashiell Hammett's favorite detective goes to Hollywood to lake a case for a movie star. The characters of the town baffle Sam until he adopts some Hollywood methods of his own.

The Certified Czech Caper" is the mystery solved by Dashiell Hammett's detective on "The Adventures of Sam Spade" at 7 p. m. Sam has to discover the meaning of a mutilated corpse to catch the criminals.

46-11-17 Decatur Daily Review
The two-part "Kandy Tooth Caper" has been postponed again, and will be heard on WSOY's Adventures of Sam Spade" Nov. 24 and Dec. 1. Tonight, at 7 p.m., Spade will be on "The Civic Duty Caper."

46-11-24

22

The Kandy Tooth Caper Part 1

N

7 p. m.Sam Spade (WBBM)
"Kandy Tooth Caper."

Sam Spade (7 p.m.), in "The Kandy Tooth Caper," on a mystery which actually exists. Current newsreels show worshipers and sacred elephants in the Kandy Tooth tabernacle.

46-12-22 Chicago Tribune
Sam Spade, the hardboiled detective, will find a holiday mystery under his Christmas tree at 7 p.m.

46-12-29

27

The Missing Husband

N

7 p. m.Sam Spade (WBBM):
"The Missing Husband."

47-01-05

28

The Sunday Supplement CaperThe Llewelyn Caper

N

47-01-05 Asheville Citizen-Times
Fame can be a worrisome thing, as Sam Spade will discover when he sees a Sunday newspaper feature about him in "The Sunday Supplement Caper" on the Adventures of Sam Spade tonight at 8 o'clock.

47-02-16 Asheville Citizen-Times
Murder in a movie studio will occupy the attention of Sam Spade hard boiled private detective, in an episode called "The Colossal Caper" on the Adventures of Sam Spade tonight at 8 o'clock. Howard Duff and Lurene Tuttle will be heard in the leading roles.

47-02-23 Asheville Citizen-Times - A thrilling mystery entitled the "Colossal Caper" will be cracked by the hard-boiled "private eye" played by Howard Duff on the Adventures of Sam Spade tonight at 8 o'clock.

47-03-16 Cincinnati Enquirer - 8 p.m., WKRC: The Bliss brothers find that life is amiss and call upon Sam Spade to set things straight. Sam knocks about boisterously, but finally gets his fiend.

47-03-23

39

Too Many Spades

N

7 p. m.  Sam Spade (WBBM):Too Many Spades."

47-03-30

40

The Dancing Pearls Caper

N

7 p. m.  Sam Spade (WBBM):
"The Dancing Pearls."

47-04-06

41

The House Dick Caper

N

7 p. m.  Sam Spade (WBBM):
"House Dick."
Filling in for a sick friend, Sam Spade encounters a slight case of murder in "House Dick," on "The Adventures of Sam Spade." Howard Duff and Lurene Tuttle play the leading roles.

47-04-13

42

The Double-Scar Caper

N

47-04-20

43

The Mean Landlord Caper

N

Mason City Globe-GazetteSAM SPADE (7 p. m.) A land lord who does business with a thousand tenants, though he has been a recluse for hall a century, is the central figure in "The Mean Landlord Caper," in which Spade solves 2 murders.

47-04-27

44

The Debutante Caper

N

Time Change
(9 p.m.) -- "The Adventures of Sam Spade" which recently received the award of the Mystery Writers of America. Inc., as the best radio mystery of 1946 47 switches to a new and later broadcast time.

47-06-15 Oregonian
Sam Spade's adventures on KOIN at 9 p.m. start when a young and beautiful stranger calls for help in finding a stolen car. When Spade locates the auto in a shady used car lot, he discovers that the body and fenders are made of solid platinum.

47-06-22

52

The Greek Letter Caper

N

[ The first of two programs originating in New York]

6 p. mSam Spade (WBBM):
double-crossing and stamp stealing.

47-06-22 Decatur Daily ReviewA quest for a rare and valuable stamp, stolen from its owner, leads private eye Sam Spade into a complicated maze of doublecross, on the the "Adventures of Sam Spade" (WSOY--6 p.m.) The Spade show was recently designated by the Mystery Writers of America as "the best radio mystery of the year."

47-06-29

53

The Cosmic Harmony Caper

N

47-06-29 Arkansas Gazette
Sam Spade
5:30 p.m.: Howard Duff starring as Sam Spade in the second program originating in New York, KRLA-CBS

47-07-06

54

The Simile Caper

N

(9 p.m.) -- "The Adventures of Sam Spade" crooked business.partners work out a plan for confusing practically everybody in sight.and taking advantage of the confusion to perpetrate a swindle, in "The Simile Caper." Each partner hires a private detective to use as an alibi if the swindle fails. Unfortunately for the plot, one of the detectives hired is Spade.

It's a double cross in duplicates on THE ADVENTURES OF SAM SPADE for Wildroot at 6:00 as they present, "The Simile Caper."

47-07-13

55

The Seamless Caper

N

(9 p.m.) -- "The Adventures of Sam Spade" A convention of garment salesmen develops unconventional angles, and Spade, hardboiled private detective, takes on "The Seamless Caper." One of the salesmen, his room ransacked, asks Spade to investigate and.tidy up the ensuing thrill-packed mess.

47-07-20 Asheville Citizen-Times
A frightened poet enlists the help of Sam Spade and the hard boiled private eye will do a bit of exploring in the field of iambic tetrameter, in the case of "The Unhappy Poet" on the Adventures of Sam Spade tonight at 7 o'clock. The versifier's chief complaint (while he's still able to complain) is that a publisher and a novelist have been doing all in their power to prevent publication of his writings. The Unhappy Poet will be a repeat performance of a script which was widely acclaimed in its first performance July 26, 1946. Howard Duff stars as Spade, with Lurene Tuttle as his secretary, Effie Perrine.

47-07-27

57

The Gold Rush Caper

N

(9 p.m.) -- "The Adventures of Sam Spade" tough as nails private detective, slugs, shoots, talks and thinks his way through a thrilling case of crime. Lud Gluskin conducts the background music for the "Adventures of Sam Spade."

47-08-10 Asheville Citizen-Times
Entrusted with a valuable 17-Century tankard, Sam Spade will find trouble brewing when a modern stein is substituted for the antique, in "The Commonwealth Tankard" on the Adventures of Sam Spade program tonight at 7 o'clock. Spade's assisnment to deliver the tankard, C.O.D. from an art dealer to a wealthy patron, will run into a snag with the disappearance of the vessel, and the subsequent investigation reveals that ale is not what it seems to be. Howard Duff will star in the title role, with Lurene Tuttle as his secretary, Effie Perrine.

47-08-10 Arkansas Gazette
Sam Spade
6 p.m.: A missing 17th century tankard furnishes the excitement in the case of "The Commonwealth Tankard" on the Adventures of Sam Spade, starring Howard Duff, KLRA-CBS

47-08-17

60

The Doctor's Dilemma Caper

N

47-08-24

61

The Jade Dragon Caper

N

47-08-31

62

The Corkscrew Caper

N

Wildroot's SAM SPADE at 6:00
tells how he got out of "The Corkscrew
Caper", back in his younger
days in a tough Arizona town.

47-09-07

63

The Forty-Nine Cent Caper

N

47-09-14

64

The Cinderella Caper

N

(9 p.m.) -- Spade, one-man antidote for rising crime statistics, cute a smart caper in his own right to outmaneuver and outguess a citizen or two bent on evil-doing and tells his secretary Effie Perrine, and the whole radio audience all about it.

Howard DuffPlease print a biographical sketch of Howard Duff.MOVIE FAN, Fresno.
Howard Duff was born in Bremerton, Wash., August 24, 1913.
Graduating from Seattle's Roosevelt High School, the actor joined the Seattle Repertory Theater. Remaining with that organization from 1934 through 1937, Duff chalked up appearances in such plays as Comedy Of Errors, Midsummer Night's Dream, Private Lives, No More Frontier, Bun The Dead, Waiting For Lefty and Volpone.
Duff served with the United States Army from March, 1941, to November, 1945. Attached to the Armed Forces Radio Service branch, he spent six months covering Saipan, Guam and Iwo Jima, working with AFRS radio stations in those areas as a correspondent. He was a staff sergeant when discharged. When Dashiell Hammett's The Adventures Of Sam Spade made its debut over the Columbia Broadcasting System in August, 1946, Duff was assigned the title role. Today one year after his Sam Spade debut, Duff is under personal contract to Mark Bellinger.
His first screen role as Soldier in Hellinger's production of Brute Force, released through Universal- International, has rated him star material votes from critics throughout the country.

47-09-21

65

The April Caper

N

47-09-28

66

The Madcap Caper

N

47-09-28 Decatur Daily Review
FOLLOWING THE OLD French detective maxim, "Look for the woman," Sam Spade solves a case and has a lot of fun at the same time on the Adventures of Sam Spade (WSOY-7 p.m.)

47-10-05

67

The Adam Figg Caper

Y

47-10-12

68

The Tears of Buddha Caper

June Havoc was rumored merging with Kay Thompson's recent groom, producer William Spier. It must be luff because June appears on his "Sam Spade" program without billing credit

47-10-19

69

The Untouchable Caper

N

47-10-26

70

The Suitcase CaperThe Bonnie Fair Caper

N

47-10-26 Shreveport Times
"The Suitcase Caper" is solved on tonight's program "The Adventuers of Sam Spade" broadcast at 7:00 p.m. over CBS-KWKH. Effie Perrine, Spade's loyal secretary, succumbing to a woman's eternal curiosity buys a locked suitcase at an auction of unclaimed baggage. A gang immediately shows a menacing interest in Effie and her bargain bag, and Sam has to come to the rescur. Howard Duff is starred as Sam Spade and Lurene Tuttle plays Effie.

47-11-02

71

The Wrong Guy Caper

N

47-11-09

72

The Treasure Island CaperThe Bow Window Caper

Y

(7 p.- m.) The private eye is hired to impersonate a crew member in a yacht race, but soon discovers that his real mission is to serve as a human clay pigeon, in "The Treasure Island Caper." As his investigation progresses, Spade comes to the conclusion that his employers intend to kill him, to further an ingenious plot.

(7 p. m.) Sam gets involved in the deal to protect a commercial method for coloring glass but discovers lat the stakes are considerably higher when it dawns on him that le formula is also intended for coloring diamonds, in "The Blood Diamond Caper."

(7 p. rn.) Spade, Dashiell Hammett's alert and slightly jaundiced private eye, makes public his report of a new caper which nets him more bruises than dollars on "The Adventures of Sam Spade." Howard Duff is heard in the title role.

47-12-07

76

The Palermo Vendetta Caper

N

47-12-07 Decatur Daily Review
Hard boiled Sam Spade tackles "The Palermo Vandetta Caper" on the Adventures of Sam Spade. With the victims of the vendetta numbering three, Spade teams up with Mario, a lawyer, who serves as his technical advisor, and soon learns that there is more to the case than a simple seud. (WSOY--7 p.m.)

47-12-14

77

The Gumshoe Caper

N

47-12-21

78

The Nick Saint Caper

N

Universal is lucking around the idea of making a movie from the "Sam Spade" radio series. It would star Howard Duff. Duff is the hottest thing on the Universal lot since "The Naked City" and "All My Sons."
So much so that the studio wants him on an exclusive contracts except for the two pictures a year contract he already has with Mark Hellinger.

47-12-21 Shreveport Times - ADVENTURES OF SAM SPADE 7:00 P.M. A criminal departs from the holiday spirit of good fellowship and runs into trouble with the hard-boiled private eye.

47-12-28

79

The Perfect Score Caper

N

47-12-28 Cincinnati Enquirer
8 p.m., WKRC: When Sam Spade is angered by still another underworld intrusion a repentant criminal turns over a new leaf in the law's "book."

48-01-04

80

The One Hour Caper

Y

48-01-11

81

The Short Life Caper

N

48-01-18

82

The Pike's Head Caper

N

48-01-25

83

The Gold Key Caper

The Bakersfield Californian of January
4th 1948 announces a guest appearance
of Sam Spade on The Joan Davis Show

Y

Howard Duff is devoting full time to his Sam Spade show until the Bellinger company, which owns his seven-year contract, is reorganized. He'll be a hot bet after "The Naked City" is released

48-01-24 Bakersfield CalifornianDOUBLE DUTY--HOWARD DUFF, a busy man these days, brings his portrayal of Private Eye SAM SPADE to THE JOAN DAVIS SHOW at 6:00 P.M. tomorrow and then faces added dangers on his own show later in the evening at 9:00. SAM gets it coming and going this week.

48-02-01

84

The Nimrod Caper

N

48-02-01 Akron Beacon Journal
8--WADC, Sam Spade: "The Nimrod Caper."

48-02-08

85

The Great Drought Caper

N

48-02-08 Baltimore SunTHE ADVENTURES OF SAM SPADEThere's trouble brewing for some criminal in this conference held by three key figures in this exciting mystery-drama series heard every Sunday at 8 P.M. Howard Duff, right, is heard in the title role, and Lurene Tuttle is cast as his efficient secretary, Effie Perrine. William Spier, center, is the producer.

48-02-15

86

The Goldie Gates Caper

N

48-02-15 The TimesSam Spade Looks
For Missing Heir
On KWKH TonightA rich society woman poses a problem for Sam Spade, investigator, when two would-be heirs turn up, claiming to be her missing son, in "The Goldie Gates Caper" on KWKH's "Adventure of Sam Spade" tonight at 7:00 p.m.

Spade is called into the case by Goldie Gates, society reporter, who helped "discover" the first son. A bronzed model of a cow, made by the heir during his boyhood, is the key item in the solution of the caper.

Howard Duff stars as Spade.

48-02-22

87

The Mayson Crayson Caper

N

48-02-22 Asheville Citizen-TimesSam Spade persuades a criminal to be as truthful as George Washington--8 p.m.

48-02-29

88

The Grim Reaper Caper

N

48-02-29 Battle Creek EnquirerFULL TIME ON AIR Howard Duff is devoting full time to his Sam Spade air show until the Hellingre Company which owns his seven-year contract, is reorganized. He will be a hot bet after "The Naked City" is released.

48-08-14 Mason City Globe-GazetteSunday Highlights
Sam Spade (7 p.m.) A malicious stepmother, a fear-ridden heiress and a writer more mysterious than his own detective stories provide Sunday's thrills.

IN THE SEPTEMBER "Pacific Program Hooperatings," Blondie is first, Adventures of Sam Spade placed second and Horace Heidt ranks third among the "First Fifteen" programs. . ,
Other shows, according to 'their ranking are, F.B.I.. in Peace and War, Inner Sanctum, People Are Funny, Radio Theater, Take It or Leave It, Talent Scouts, Whistler, Mr. District Attorney, Red Skelton, Strike It Rich, What's the Name of That Song and Let George Do It.

48-10-10 Cumberland Sunday TimesMYSTERY VOICEIf you've noticed a familiar voice on the Sam Spade radio shows it probably belongs to June Havoc, costar with Alan Ladd in Paramount's "One Woman." Her husband, Bill Spier, produces the program and she goes on incognito as a gag.

48-10-17

121

The Confidence CaperThe Rumanian Con Game Caper

N

48-10-16 Mason City Globe-Gazette
Sunday Highlights
"Adventures of Sam Spade" 7 p.m.) Deductive powers and a good right cross to the jaw lead to the solution of an unusual "caper" during the "Adventures of Sam Spade."

48-10-24 Canton Repository
"The Insomnia Caper" will be presented on "The Adventures of Sam Spade" at 8 over CBS-WGAR.

48-10-31

123

The Fairley-Bright Caper

Y

48-10-31 Akron Beacon Journal
8--WADC, Sam Spade. It's almost the end for Sam Spade, but he rallies just before the program ends to give his secretary a kiss.

48-11-07

124

The S.Q.P. Caper

Y

48-11-14

125

The Gin Rummy Caper

N

48-11-21

126

The Golden Fleece Caper

Howard Duff will take his Sam Spade air show to New York for a few weeks this winter. "Only by taking the show along can I get a vacation," he says. Although he gained fame as a detective, Duff plays his first film dick in "Illegal Entry," about alien smuggling.

The original CBS plan was to
Schedule Bergen at '6:30 p. m. Sundays, followed by Benny at 7 o'clock, Amos and Andy.at 7:30, Phil Harris and Alice Paye at 8 and "Sam Spade" at 8:30, But the sponsor of the latter program objects to moving It from its present time of 8 o'clock And the sponsor of the Phil Harris show feels It should follow Benny at 7:30. . . But the sponsor of Amos and Andy won't hear of giving up the 7:30 spot.

48-12-20 Mason City Globe-Gazette
On the Radio Beam . . . "Suspense," another CBS-developed series, topped the balloting in the best mystery show classification, and "Adventures of Sam Spade" and "inner Sanctum," finishing 2nd and 3rd, made it a clean sweep for Columbia in this category. . .

48-12-26

131

The Nick Saint Caper

N

[Repeat of 47-12-21]

49-01-02

132

The Three-Sided Bullet Caper

N

49-01-09

133

The Double Negative Caper

N

49-01-16

134

The Betrayal In Bumpus Hell Caper

N

[AFRS Only]
Howard Duff has permission from CBS to record his Sam Spade air thriller from New York, so he'll take his first vacation in two and a half years after he finishes "Illegal Entry." Howard's option as Sam comes up soon and he'll sign againif he gets what he wants. Meaning more money and better billing.

49-01-23

135

The Main Event Caper

N

49-01-30

136

The Double Life Caper

N

49-02-06

137

The Firebug Caper

N

49-02-13

138

The Brothers Keeper Caper

N

49-02-20

139

The Attitude Caper

N

49-02-27

140

The Three-Cornered Frame Caper

N

49-02-23 Pottstown MercuryEffie Perrine, the ever-thoughtful secretary of Detective Sam Spade on the radio program, "The Adventurse of Sam Spade," is really Lurene Tuttle, a gifted dialectitian and character portrayer. Lurene is heard on so many programs that she is justly described as "the first lady of radio." Lurene had seven years of trouping in stock companies before she appeared on the air. She was born in Pleasant Lake, Ind. She was on the screen in 1947, making her debut in "Heaven Only Knows." Orson Welles featured her in his "Macbeth." Lurene has a teen-age daughter, Barbara.

CBS's Sam Spade, whose adventures as a detective aie aired at 7:00, hit a new high of 13.8, while Fred Allen struggled along with 11.3. Both shows, however, have lower Hoopers than ABC's prize giveaway, Stop The Music

"I chatted briefly with Howard Duff, who perhaps is better known to radio listeners than he is to movie-goers. He is "Sam Spade" in Dashiell Hammet's detective mystery, "Adventures of Sam Spade." He promised me he'd speak to the director about the goshawful incidental music that is driving me and other listeners nearly nuts. Nice fellow,
Duff."

49-03-20

143

The Trojan Horse Caper

N

49-03-27

144

The Love Letter Caper

Y

49-04-03

145

The Vacation Caper

N

49-04-10

146

The Stopped Watch Caper

Y

49-04-17

147

The Report On Edith HamiltonEdith Hamilton

Y

49-04-24

148

The Hot Cargo Caper

N

49-05-01

149

The Battles Of Belvedere

Y

49-05-08

150

The Fast Talk Caper

N

Howard Duff took radio-actress Lurene Tuttle to Potter's Supper Clubwhich may or may not cause Ava Gardner a twitter.

49-05-08 St. Louis Post-Dispatch
FRIDAY
Howard Duff, who plays radio's Sam Spade, in KMOX's drama period at 9:00 in "Four Hours to Kill."

49-06-12 Shreveport Times
A search for a valuable Spanish coin almost causes Sam Spade, radio's most famous private eye, to cash in his chips on tonight's broadcast of Columbia's "Adventures of Sam Spade." The program, titled "Sam and the Guiana Sovereign," will be heard over KWKH and KWKH FM this evening at 7 o'clock.

49-06-19

156

The Apple Of Eve Caper

Y

49-06-26

157

The Goat's Milk Caper

N

49-07-03

158

The Hamburger Sandwich Caper

N

"The Adventures of Sam Spade" moves to NBC in September (same time, same star, Howard Duff) after being heard on CBS since September of 1946. Before that the show had pot in a couple of months on ABC.

49-07-10

159

The Queen Bee Caper

Y

49-07-10 Shreveport Times
'Adventures of Sam Spade' Begins Fourth Year on the Air Three years ago on Sunday, July 12, an unknown young radio actor stepped to the microphone to create over the air one of the most famous private detectives in fiction. The actor was Howard Duff . . . today one of radio and screen's brightest young stars. The famed private eye who was making his introduction to radio listeners was Dashiell Hammett's popular Samus Sam Spade, today one of radio's favorite airwaves "dicks." The show was "The Adventures of Sam Spade." which today attracts millions of listeners each Sunday night at 7:00 o'clock over CBS-KWKH and KWKH-FM. During those three years and some 150 scripts, commonly called "capers" in the Spade lingo, Sam Spade has become a byword for a private detective and "The Adventures of Sam Spade" synonymous with exciting, tough, fast moving mystery drama.

49-07-17

160

The Cuttyhunk Caper

N

49-07-24

161

The Tears Of Night Caper

Y

49-07-31

162

The Hot-Foot Caper

N

49-08-07

163

The Champion Caper

Y

49-08-14

164

The Sourdough Mountain Caper

N

49-08-21

165

The Silver Key Caper

N

49-08-28

166

The Prodigal Daughter Caper

Y

49-09-04

167

The Flashback Caper

N

49-09-11

168

The Costume Caper

N

49-09-18

169

The Over My Dead Body Caper

N

49-09-18 Pittsburgh PressNBC has swiped Sam Spade from the Columbia network. The move is effective one week from today. The same trick was tried with the Monday night Radio Theater, but didn't work.

49-09-18 St. Louis Post-DispatchLoretta Young will head the cast in KSD's final 7:00 Sunday broadcast of the Four-Star Playhouse, which will be replaced on KSD next Sunday by the Adventures of Sam Spade.

49-09-25

170

The Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchau-bunagungamaugg Caper

Y

[NOTE: Though widely advertised as switching from CBS to NBC, Dick Joy announces "This is CBS, The Columbia Broadcasting System" at the close of the circulating program. This, in spite of announcing the correct title of the program--letter perfect--at the commercial break. Either the script was in error, or the move from CBS to NBC didn't occur with this episode.]

49-09-25 Wisconsin State Journal
'The Adventures of Sam Spade" with Howard Duff as the Dashiell Hammett detective, will move to NBC-WIBA effective with the program at 7 p. m.49-09-25 Kingsport Times-News

Adventures Of Sam SpadeNew Sunday WKPT Series

Sam Spade, license number 137596, seldom tells the police all he knows. Sam's the sharp-talking crafty private eye, originated by Dashiell Hammett, and portrayed on the air by Howard Duff. And the Adventures of Sam Spade, coming to WKPT and NBC tonight at 8 for a new Sunday night series, promise plenty of thrills and chills.

Howard Duff, in the title role, has played Sam Spade on the air ever since the series started in 1946. A Bremerton, Washington native, Duff at one time was a window-trimmer in a Seattle department store. The theater was his ambition, and a Seattle radio station gave him his first job ... not acting, but announcing. He worked there during the day, and acted in Shakespearean dramas with the Repertory Playhouse in the evening without pay.

That was the beginning. Now, Duff divides his time between radio and films, and is currently being seen in a move about Sam Spade. On the air, his co-star on the Sunday night show will be Miss Lurene Tuttle, as the ever-essential secretary.

49-09-25 Wisconsin State Journal
7 p.m.--Adventures of Sam Spade (WIBA): moves to NBC with Duryea, Sam Levene, Kenny Delmar, Joan Lorring. [Note: This listing refers to a U.S. Steel program, not Sam Spade. The newspaper was in error.]

The Adventures of Sam Spade
starring Howard Duff will switch
from the Columbia network to the
National Broadcasting network tonight at 7 o'clock and be a regular
Sunday night feature on NBC.

49-09-25 Democrat And Leader
The Adventures of Sam Spade starring Howard Duff will switch from the Columbia network to the National Broadcasting network tonight at 7 o'clock and be a regular Sunday night feature on NBC.

8 p.m.NBC: In a reversal of the usual network goings on of late, "The Adventures of 'Sam Spade", the tough "private eye", will move from CBS to NBC at this time. "Sam Spade", Dashiell Hammett's detective character, is portrayed by Howard Duff. Each episode of the series is a complete case, dictated by Spade to his secretary, Effie Peirine (played by Lurene Tuttle), in a flash-back format, Sam, who usually doesn't tell the police all He knows, is constantly in conflictand rivalrywith the best detctives of the homicide squad.-

49-09-25 Long Beach Press-Telegram - 5:00-KFI--If you have been sleuthing for that super sleuth "Sam Spade," here he is...and tonight he is practically scalped by some wild Indians.

49-10-02

171

The Junior G-Man Caper

N

49-10-02 San Diego Union
Sam Spade -- Howard Duff, in the titular role, finally find that all is not sordid in the private sleauthing racket when he becomes involved in the "Junior G-Man Caper," KFSD at 5.

49-10-09 Honolulu Advertiser
Sam Spade, the touch detective created by Dashiell Hammett, will be heard over KGU tonight at 9:15. The "private eye" is hired by an Indian chief to guard a wampum belt, the design on which describes the location of a fabulous gold mine. Spade matches wits and strength with assorted characters who also want the belt.

49-10-16

173

The Pretty Polly Caper

N

49-10-23

174

The Pulaski Street Caper

N

[Title verified by The Oregonian spot ad of October 23rd 1949]

5:00KFITonight "Sam Spade" finds himself in complete possession of the facts of a case . . . his-problem is to keep the identity of the murderer from the boy's mother.

49-10-30

175

The Paul Bunyan Jr. Caper

N

49-10-30 The OregonianHoward Duff, as Sam Spade, becomes involved in "The Paul Bunyan Jr. Caper" over KGW at 5 p.m. Spade is hired to keep a huge, brawling woodcutter out of trouble, but trouble is all they get into.

49-11-06

176

The Cheesecake Caper

Y

[AFRS only]

5-.00 KFI "Sam Spade" becomes involved with the "Cheesecake Caper" when he is faced with the problem of tracking down a lovely model.

49-11-06 Greenville News - Howard Duff, as detective Sam Spade, becomes involved in "The Cheesecake Caper" on "The Adventures of Sam Spade" tonight at 8:00 o'clock over WFBC and WFBC-FM. The famous "private eye" faces the problem of tracing a lovely girl with only a candid snapshot as a clue. He becomes embroiled in events that lead to a politician's office and an advertising photographer who specializes in leg art. Effie, Spade's secretary (portrayed by Lurene Tuttle), is suspicious of his interest in the "cheesecake."

49-12-04 Oregonian
Sam Spade played by Howard Duff, runs into one of the most humorous capers of his career, without even one dead body, when he becomes entangled in "The Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail Caper," over KGW at 5 p.m..

49-12-11

181

The Lonesome Louie Caper

N

"The Lonesome Louie Caper" will be the title of "The Adventures of Sam Spade, Detective" tonight at 8:00 o'clock over NBC. When Sam Spade tries to help a man mountain find his missing girl, he gets mixed up with a group of fight bookies who almost fix him for good.

50-01-08 San Diego UnionSam Spade -- Personville, mythical site of corruption, is the locale for this evening's adventure, KFSD at 5, when Spade goes there to issue a subpoena to a mobster and nearly loses his life.

50-01-15

186

The Phantom Witness Caper

N

50-01-15 Baton Rouge Advocate
Digging up a murder cse almost nearly lands Sam Spade six feet underground in "The Phantom Witness Caper" on "The Adventures of Sam Spade," this evening at 7 p.m. over WJBO-WBRL. Howard Duff stars as Sam Spade on this NBC program. Two years ago, spade had a client, Eddie McBride, who was accused of murdering his sweetheart, Julie Van Etten. Eddie hired Spade to find a certain witness to prove his innocence. This witness, an unknown man, had seen Eddie enter Julie's room after she was murdered. However, Spade was unable to find the witness, and Eddie was convicted of the crime. On the night when "The Phantom Witness Caper" begins, Spade receives a call from Eddie at San Quentin. Eddie tells Spade that he has just seen the witness on the warden's television set, watching the wrestling matches at Dreamland auditorium. Thus begins another Sam Spade adventure to thrill mystery fans on JBO-WBRL.

51-01-05 The San Diego Union
The robust ego of Sam Spade (now portrayed by Steve Dunne), suffers a bit when he is hired (over KFSD tonight at 9) to find a missing witness so that the witness can testify on a special broadcast (sounds a little silly to us). At any rate he has trouble. None of this solving stuff right off. He meets a dance hall girl, a predatory lawyer and a microphone which leaves its call letters on his chin.

50-01-22 The Oregonian
"The Wedding Bell Caper" will be heard on the Sam Spade program over KGW at 5 p. m.

50-01-22 San Diego UnionSam Spade -- What starts off as the simple disappearance of 40 bottles of hair dye and a hair stylist named Anatole, turns into a chase which leads the "private eye" from San Francisco to the stables of Santa Anita, KFSD at 5 p. m.

50-01-29

188

The Too Many Leads Caper

N

50-02-05

189

The Black Magic Caper

N

50-02-05 Kingsport Times-NewsTHE ADVENTURES OF SAM SPADE (tonight at 8) will provide a unique experience for those who have never enjoyed a trip into the fourth dimension. "The Black Magic Caper" is the vehicle and the jumping-off spot for this little junket is, as usual, Sam Spade's office where our Shamus is engaged un busily doing nothing. Bemoaning the dearth of clients, he is interrupted by a bewildered little man named Wendell Wisby, who obviously qualifies as a prospective client. Any further comment would be telling.

50-02-12

190

The Crossword Puzzle Caper

N

50-02-12 San Diego Union
Sam Spade -- The detective is hired by an ex-convict in "The Crossword Puzzle Caper," KFSD at 5 p. m. What seems like a simple enough job involves the "private eye" in murder and the near-loss of his own life.

50-03-05 The Plain Dealer
Sam Spade, the intrepid private eye is hired by a doctor to protect him from the husband of one of his patients. It's all told on the "Homicidal Husband Caper" on the Sam Spade show at 5 o'clock on WTAM.

50-03-12

194

The Barbary Coast CaperThe Barbary Ghost Caper

N

50-03-12 Greenville NewsPrivate eye Sam Spade evokes memories of San Francisco before the earthquake and fire of 1906 in "The Barbary Coast Caper" during "The Adventures of Sam Spade" on WFBC and WFBC-FM this evening at 8 p.m. Echoes of Spider Kelly, Pisco Punch and Gentleman Jim Corbett are loud in Spade's ear when he is hired by a faded beauty to trace her husband. The husband has been lost for 44 years. Spade, played by Howard Duff, digs into old memories and unearths a tragic murder and a broken-hearted old man.

50-03-12 Zanesville Times RecorderHoward Duff, as private eye Sam Spade, takes on the task of locating a faded beauty's lost husband on tonight's "Adventures of Sam Spade" over WHIZ-NBC at 8 o'clock. The husband hs been missing 44 years. I have no information on the matter, but I suppose the wife just happens to remember it.

50-03-19

195

The Emerald Eyes Caper

N

[ St Patrick's Day program]

50-03-19 AdvocateA St. Patrick's day dinner is the site of the theft of a $75,000 necklace during tonight's broadcast of "The Adventures of Sam Spade" (heard over NBC and WJBO-WBRL at 7 P. m.). The famous private eye, portrayed by Howard Duff, unravels a complicated web of deception, impersonation and kindliness before the mystery is cleared.William Spier produces and directs "The Adventures of Sam Spade," which is based on the character created by Dasheill Hammett.

50-03-26 San Diego UnionSam Spade -- The private investigator encounters one of the most extraordinary rats in rodent history when he becomes involved in "The Elmer Longtail Caper" this evening, KFSD at 5.

50-04-09 Cincinnati Enquirer
SAM SPADE 8:00 PM The private eye strays from San Francisco to Hollywood for "The Picture Frame Caper" and nearly is double-crossed by a gorgeous movie star.

50-04-16

199

The Kansas Kid Caper

N

50-04-16 Oregonian
Sam Spade . . . 5:00 P.M.
Sam gets slugged twice, shot at once, and threatened another time . . . all because he tries to do a good turn for a dying prisoner's wife during "The Kansas Kid Caper!"

50-05-14 San Diego UnionSam Spade -- Through entry of a flower shop, the sleuth stumbles upon a situation which leads him to a church, a cheap bar and a Chinese den on this evening's episode, KFSD at 5.

50-05-14 Honolulu Advertiser
SAM SPADE, the jewel of the radio detectives, will go after a cursed jewel in his weekly appearance over KGU at 9:15 tonight, and wind up being slapped around by people who think he has the gem as well as by the people to whom he's supposed to deliver it. It's called "Hamite Curse Caper."

50-05-18

204

The Red Ampola Caper

Y

[ Rehearsal]

50-05-21

204

The Red Ampola Caper

Y

50-05-21 San Diego UnionSam Spade -- What looks like an easy night's work for the "private eye" turns into an evening filled with three murders during "Red Amapola Caper," KFSD at 5.

50-05-21 Morning Star
"The Red Amapola Caper" is the title of tonight's Adventure of Sam Spade, on WMAQ-NBC at 7 o'clock.

50-07-16 OregonianWhen George Anwyl Meredith can't understand why his girl has turned him down he hires private detective Sam Spade (Howard Duff) to unravel the mystery during "The Adventures of Sam Spade" KGW, 5 p.m. Spade makes a routine call on the girl in question, only to find four "torpedoes" in her apartment. A little later Spade is forced into a car and taken to a criminal who tells Spade to forget he ever got the case.

50-07-16 Greenville NewsSpade To Mix Into Love And MysteryWhen George Anwyl Meredith can't understand why his girl has rejected him, he hires private detective Sam Spade to unravel the mystery during "The Adventuers of Sam Spade" today at 8 p.m. on WFBC. Spade calls on the girl, only to find four gunmen in her apartment. Spade is forced into a car and taken to a racketeer who tells Spade to forget he ever got the case.

50-07-23

213

The Stormy Weather Caper

N

50-07-23 San Diego Union
Sam Spade -- The two-fisted detective is hired and paid by a dead man during the "Stormy Weather Caper" this evening, KFSD at 5.

50-07-30

214

The Rod and Reel Caper

N

50-07-28 Franklin News-HeraldNBC has another Sunday night headache since the Adventures of Sam Spade have been dropped by Wildroot. The shows heard this summer on NBC's Sunday night line-up have been way below par and the action on the Spade series lengthens the gap where new programs are needed, leaving 6 to 8:30 p.m. now open. The network also has another problem--Fridays--when they need something to fill the 8:30 to 10:45 timespot.

50-09-03 Kingsport Times-News
Sam Spade finds the inevitable girl in his room at a quiet country rooming house, and thereby preludes another train of events that has its culmination in the culprit's capture. Hear the adventures of Sam Spade tonight at 8, with Howard Duff in the title role and Lurene Tuttle as the loyal, adoring Effie. Incidentally, Sam's sign-off remark, "Good-night, Sweetheart," has become synonymous with Duff and his portrayal of the "private eye."

50-09-10 Cincinnati Enquirer
ADVENTURES OF SAM SPADE 8:00 PM Howard Duff in the title role decides to help out an ex-jockey friend who lives down on "Skid Row."

50-09-17

221

The Femme Fatale Caper

N

[Howard Duff's last appearance.]50-09-17 Cincinnati Enquirer
WLW, 8:00 p.m.: "The Femme Fatale Caper" is the last of "The Adventures of Sam Spade." Sam gets himself slugged and shot at in his role of nursemaid to a Southern belle. The mystery goes off the air after today.

Program Cancelled

The New Adventures of Sam Spade, Detective Radio Program Log

Date

Episode

Title

Avail.

Notes

50-11-17

1

The Death Of Sam Spade

Y

50-11-17 Corpus Christi Caller-Times
Sam Spade's back! Pass the word along, and be on hand when Howard Duff dictates another fascinating caper to his secretary Effie on The Adventures of Sam Spade, KRIS, 7:30 p.m. More than a quarter million letters were received when the famed private-eye left the air a short while ago, so now he's back by popular demand.

50-11-17 Los Angeles TimesSam Spade comes back to radio tonight but not on local stations. Howard Duff has relinquished his role as the sharp-talking Sam and Producer-Director Bill Spier is going to play a guessing game with his audience. He wants to get their reaction to the new Sam before releasing his name.

"Sam Spade" is reported returning to the air but without Howard Duff, who's doing right well for himself in the movies.

51-01-14 Dallas Morning News
San Francisco's Famed Fisherman's Wharf is the scene of violence and murder during "The Crab Louie Caper" on the Adventures of Sam Spade Sunday (WFAA-820, 7 p.m.), when the private eye learns that something far more valuable than crab is being fished out of the ocean.

51-01-12 The San Diego UnionSan Francisco's famed Fisherman's Wharf is the scene of tonight's chiller on the "Sam Spade" show over KFSD at 9. As usual, there will be violence and urder during the "Crab Louie Caper," with Steve Dunne acting like Sam Spade would if he were faced with similar circumstances. The story concerns the supposedly accidental death of a crab fisherman in rough waters off San Francisco. Aftrer he agrtees to take the case, however, Spade finds that crabs are not the onlyu things that have been trapped out of season.

51-01-19

10

The Cloak and Dagger Caper

Y

51-01-26

11

The Chateau McCloud Caper

Y

51-02-02

12

The String of Death Caper

Y

51-02-09

13

The Sure Thing Caper

Y

51-02-09 Rockford Morning Star
"The Sure Thing Caper" is the title of tonight's Adventure of Sam Spade on WMAQ-NBC at 7:30 o'clock.

51-02-16 New Orleans Times
Sam Spade dashes out on the "Shot in the Dark Caper" on NBC-WSMR (7:30 p.m.).

51-02-16 The San Diego Union
Another private eye also invented by a clever author (Dashiell Hammett). Sam Spade (now played by Steve DUnne) gets into some pretty pickles tonight, over KFSD at 9. He is hired by the female writer of soap operas to uncover the "terrible secret of her husband, a doctor." Seems that the doc got a telegram from Mexico and then disappeared. Before Spade gets to the bottom of this thing, there is a murder and an attempt on his own precious life.

51-03-02 The San Diego Union
"Adventures of Sam Spade" over KFSD tonight at 9, starring Steve Dunne in the role of the private detective, will deal with a retired school teacher who falls for the old "Spanish Prisoner" trick to the tune of $840.

51-03-18 Dallas Morning News
Private Detective Sam Spade is hired by a mild and thoroughly confused man who says he is slated for death during the "Sinister Siren Caper" Sunday (WFAA-820, 7 p.m.).

51-03-23

19

The Kimberley Cross Caper

Y

51-03-30 Odessa AmericanTitle of Howard Duff's new radio series is "The McCoy" and it's in the tough, private-eye tradition of "Sam Spade."

Will Duff star in a TV version of Sam Spade, now that the character he once played on radio no longer belongs to Warner Bros.? "I doubt it," he told me. "I'd rather do something with my own company. But I won't do anything on TV until it's all polished up. Lack of preparation is wrecking the careers of a lot of movie people in television."

51-03-23 San Diego Union
Spade Gets Man
Sam Spade gets one of the strangest customers of his career (and if our memory serves, he has had some dillies) in tonight's edition of "Sam Spade, Private Eye." This one, garnished with the suffix which Howard Duff made famous, is called "The Vendetta Caper." Steve Dunne is the tough talking dick who gets his man (or woman) at any cost. Over KFSD tonight at 9. He is hired by a guy in tonight's thing to find out why his client has been given the brush socially.

51-03-30

20

The Red Star Caper

Y

Title of Howard Duff's new radio series is "The McCoy" and it's in the tough, private-eye tradition of "Sam Spade." . . .

51-04-06

21

The Denny Shane Caper

Y

51-04-13

22

The Civic Pride Caper

Y

51-04-13 Canton Repository
"The Itchy Palm Caper" will be featured on "Adventures of Sam Spade" at 8:30 over NBC-WTAM.

NBC's "Short Story" aeries is switching to Fridays at 8 30 p m., replacing "Sam Spade" which is being dropped.

8:30short Story dramatizations, moved from Wednesday; to take over from Sam Spade, off for the summer.

51-07-19

--

--

Another shift will move Father Knows Best up a "half-hour on Thursday nights to the former Henry Aldrich time. Sam Spade will be back on Friday nights, so will Groucho Marx with his quiz on Wednesday nights, his TV version to resume on Thursdays. Big Show, Phil and Alice, and Theater Guild are returning to the Sunday night schedule.

48-01-24 Bakersfield Californian
DOUBLE DUTY--HOWARD DUFF, a busy man thesese days, brings his portrayal of Private Eye SAM SPADE to THE JOAN DAVIS SHOW at 6:00 P.M. tomorrow and then faces added dangers on his own show later in the evening at 9:00. SAM gets it coming and going this week.

48-02-19

692

The First Nighter Rehearsal Caper

Y

Campana's First Nighter Program
Starring Olan Soule and Barbara Luddy

48-11-07

032

The Pipps Picalilly Playhouse: Sam Shovel, Private Eye

Y

The Fred Allen Show

49-02-10

20

Gracie Sends Sam Spade To Jail

Y

The Burns and Allen Show

49-02-10 San Diego UnionGeorge Burns and Gracie Allen make the sleuth the prey, when Howard "Sam Spade, Detective" Duff is their guest tonight at 9, over KFSD.

In good company -- Left to right, George Sanders, Ed Sullivan, Ida Lupino, Richard Hearne, and Howard Duff, ca. 1957

Howard Duff and Ida Lupino in publicity still from their Television program Mr. Adams and Eve, ca. 1957

Howard Duff, ca. 1965

"Goodnight, Sweetheart"

Howard Green Duff was born in the former Charleston Township later incorporated into Bremerton, Washington. Both athletic and artistic as a child and young adult, Duff would entertain his school chums as much with his cartoons and caricatures as with his all-around athletic skills. But indeed his athletic career was fated to be cut short by a freak accident which shattered his leg, effectively ending a promising sports career. Duff had already dabbled in amateur Drama in high school and enjoyed the audience reactions so much that he began to consider a career in Entertainment in earnest.

Duff's artistic talent got him some work as a department store window dresser but he hated it. He got the chance to do some radio work at a small local station after he graduated from high school and jumped at it. He did a bit of announcing and spot commercials. While working at the radio station, he apprenticed with the Seattle Repertory Community Theatre Company, eventually graduating from the Seattle Repertory School. He then returned to radio in earnest but within four years Duff found himself drafted into the Army.

Duff's Army service saw him working as an announcer, reporter and journalist for the early Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS), at first serving in the Marianas for six months, then returning stateside to work out of both the Gower Gulch and Santa Monica facilities of the Armed Forces Radio Service Information and Education Recording Center. It was there that he gained his first worldwide audience recording intros, bumpers, public service announcements and narrations for many of the AFRS' most popular and enduring programming. Duff worked on many of AFRS' most popular series destined for overseas audiences--Basin Street (The Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street) among them. Known as 'Sergeant X' to his far-flung Mystery Playhouse fans, Duff alternated with Peter Lorre and 'T4Y' to introduce Mystery Playhouse renditions of The Thin Man, Mr. and Mrs. North, The Hermit's Cave, Sherlock Holmes, Inner Sanctum, Charlie Chan, and the other popular mystery programs of the era to hundreds of thousands of American Expeditionary and United Nations Forces throughout the world. Pictured at left as a corporal, Duff was eventually honorably discharged as a Staff Sergeant.

Desperate for regular work after his discharge, Howard Duff lived a hand to mouth existence for several months, auditioning in vain for any number of Radio and Film opportunities, only to eventually become utterly frustrated in his efforts. It was in that frame of mind that he auditioned--along with a reported 100 or so other aspiring young actors--for Director William Spier's new Dashiell Hammett project, tentatively titled, "Sam Spade, Detective." In Duff's frame of mind his delivery for the audition was almost flippant. Duff admittedly didn't give the tryout any serious interest, but at the end of the day, it was that very casual, flip delivery that caught Spier's attention. Spier reportedly continued to audition for the role of Sam Spade, but couldn't shake his impression of Duff's delivery. Spier ultimately went with his instincts and gave Howard Duff the nod to appear with 'Radio's First Lady' Lurene Tuttle as Detective Sam Spade and his long-suffering secretary Effie Perrine in "The Adventures of Sam Spade, Detective."

Within literally weeks of airing the Sam Spade series, Howard Duff was creating a buzz across America. The on-air chemistry between novice Duff and Radio pro Tuttle was the height of Golden Age Radio magic and quite literally propelled the duo to some of the best early audience numbers in Radio history.

More importantly for Duff, Radio's 'Sam Spade' caught the attention of legendary former media critic and Film Noir producer Mark Hellinger. Within six months of airing The Adventures of Sam Spade, Detective, Hellinger signed Duff to a personal services contract for Hellinger's Film projects. Hellinger had worked for both Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox, but it was his Universal Pictures projects that got him most interested in Duff's raw, natural charisma. Duff's collaboration with Helllinger would see Duff appear in two of Hellinger's Jules Dassin-directed Film Noir classics, Brute Force (1947) and Naked City (1948). Duff's broad appeal to film audiences in Naked City put his Film career into overdrive. Tragically, his driven, charismatic mentor, Mark Hellinger, died suddenly in 1947 of a heart attack at the age of 44.

Thus thrust into the spotlight but with his strongest backer prematurely deceased, Duff responded by redoubling his efforts to learn even more about his craft and his profession. He couldn't have been in better hands. By simply continuing to appear as Sam Spade he was working with two of Radio's most legendary talents--William Spier and Lurene Tuttle. Performing in both an Acting Lab under the tutelage [or should that be 'Tuttle-age'] of Lurene Tuttle and Directing Lab under the mentorship of William Spier, Duff continued to observe, learn and implement the lessons of two of Radio's greatest mentors with every succeeding broadcast of 'Sam Spade'.

That's not to say that the bewildering array of Radio appearances he'd already compiled by the late 1940s weren't helping as well. Duff's Radiography for the year 1944 alone had him appearing in some fifty other concurrent Radio productions besides his own Adventures of Sam Spade. Indeed it was the extraordinary reception of his Sam Spade characterization that had both Duff and Tuttle appearing on some forty other programs in character as Sam Spade and Effie Perrine. America, it seems, simply couldn't get enough of the chemistry between Sam Spade and the naive, lovable, ditzy Effie.

From the July 13th 1947 edition of the Brooklyn Eagle:

A radio detective with an audience numbering millions of listeners makes his film debut as a convict in Mark Hellinger's "Brute Force," due Wednesday at Loew's Criterion.
This radio sleuth who turns lawbreaker on the screen is Howard Duff, presented Sunday nights over C. B. S. in "The Adventures of Sam Spade," a mystery series based on Dashiell Hammett characters. Burt Lancaster, Hume Cronyn, Charles Bickford, Yvonne DeCarlo, Ann Blyth, Ella Raines and Anita Colby have the leading roles in the film which revolves
around a prison break.
By a coincidence of show business, Duff is directed by Jules Dassin, who was the director, of the stage play, "Birthday," in which Duff appeared for the Actors' Lab. After this play Dassin secured a number of film offers for Duff, all of which the young actor declined. When Dassin was assigned to direct "Brute Force," the first actor whom he suggested for the cast
was Duff.
Duff plays the part of an ex-soldier in "Brute Force" and is in real life a veteran of World War II. He Served from 1941 to 1945, was attached to the Armed Forces Radio Service and was active in the Pacific battle area.

The notoriety of his early successes in both Radio and Film found him dating the likes of Yvonne DeCarlo, Ava Gardner, and eventually Film Noir actress and director Ida Lupino. As Duff's star continued to rise, so did his Film, Radio and Television opportunities. Clearly already typecast for a succession of Film Noir projects over the following ten years, Duff was characteristically laid back and pragmatic about the very Sam Spade role that got him there.

Duff's personal and professional appeal came so apparently effortlessly that one gets the impression that Radio, Film and Television history tend to take Duff's natural talent for granted. But then that's precisely how the entertainment world viewed Lurene Tuttle's talent as well. Not to elevate Howard Duff's achievements in Radio to the level of Lurene Tuttle's, but there's much they shared in common. And to her great credit, Lurene Tuttle is arguably most responsible for the oversight of recognition to both her career and Duff's as well.

Radio 'magic' is a far different intangible than screen magic or screen chemistry. On-screen chemistry has many objective and subjective, elements at play. But Radio magic, by contrast limited as it is by its aural dimension, is so much harder to pin down. When it comes off--consistently--there's simply no other way to describe it. It's not simply personal chemistry, since the very purpose of radio dramatization is to evoke a very personal experience in what amounts to a universal audience. It's far beyond that. And it's that very elusiveness that makes Radio magic so much harder to analyze or dissect. The universal appeal of the Duff/Tuttle years of Sam Spade over Radio are simply enigmatic. There's no other rational way to describe them. But there's no escaping the fact that that elusive quality of the Sam Spade chemistry owes itself to Howard Duff and Lurene Tuttle's very special brand of emotional spontaneity, transparency, integrity and craftsmanship in both their roles.

That dramatic crucible paved Duff's way throughout the remainder of his amazing Radio career, a Television career spanning some 300+ appearances over 45 years, and a Film career spanning some twenty feature films. It's no wonder that he ultimately attracted the attention and affection of famed Film Noir actress, producer and director, Ida Lupino. Together the couple built on the independent production company Ms. Lupino had formed with her second husband, Collier Young. With The Filmakers and their later Bridget Productions the couple set about producing, directing, and occasionally starring in their own Television and Film projects.

Duff's own indefatigable self-confidence helped him endure any number of life circumstances that would have thrown most other people into a series of bouts of depression. Duff seems to have simply had that gift of being able to move on, no matter what was thrown into his path. The premature cancellation of what--at the time--was Radio's 2nd or 3rd highest rated program was a perfect example. Spun a bewildering number of ways ranging from accounts of a fall Duff had endured, re-breaking the leg that had cut his sports career short to a protracted dispute between Warner Bros. and NBC over the rights to the Sam Spade character--and everything in between.

In reality, Duff had simply been yet another victim of the fascist witch hunts of the mid-1940s to mid-1950s HUAC hearings and their lying, manipulative minions. Duff's offense? Being seen at a political rally for the 'wrong' candidate. That was the beginning and end of his short-lived blacklisting. That's all it took during that cowardly, black era in our cultural history. Indeed, the hysteria also eventually caught up with Dashiell Hammett himself. Apart from the apparently indisputable income tax problems he'd brought on himself, Hammett was yet another patriotic, outspoken, veteran of two World Wars to be deemed a 'commie sympathizer' for either appearing at the wrong political rally, or simply refusing to rat out his friends.

Indeed, to this very day--as inexplicable and indefensible as the phenomenon remains--extremist right wing chicken hawks, never having served their country in uniform, continue to distort the military experience of targeted individuals who actually have put their own life on the line for their country. More so if that veteran supports the wrong candidate or cause. So what's changed in fifty years? Very little, other than the abolishment of the very Fairness Doctrine that tended to even the playing field in the face of whispering campaigns and distortions.

Duff moved on. Hammett, not so much. Duff's success with Ida Lupino--at least professionally--also produced a lovely daughter, Bridget (after whom they named their second production company). Duff and Lupino eventually divorced resolutely after eighteen years of marriage and another fifteen years of separation. Duff remarried and Ida Lupino remained single until her death in 1995.

Howard Duff continued to appear in an extraordinary variety of dramatic and comedic productions over the years. Most notably with his own Television program, Mr. Adams and Eve (1957), inspired by Duff and Lupino's own domestic life together, and culminating in Duff's memorable appearance as the pragmatic, almost cold-bloodedly matter of fact divorce lawyer in the Oscar-winning Dustin Hoffman vehicle Kramer Vs. Kramer (1979).

Duff starred in five other Television programs of his own over the years, was in equal demand as a guest star as simply himself and ultimately endeared himself to several new generations of Television and Radio fans as more and more of his body of work enters circulation for the first time.

From the May 5th 1968 edition of the Buffalo Courier Express:

WITH TWO seasons of "The Felony Squad" behind him and a third coming up, Howard Duffis of the opinion that be is destined to be known as a detective for the rest of his life.
"And that's not bad," he hastens to add.
Duff stars as Detective Sgt. Sam Stone in the television series which is seen this season
every Monday sight on ABCTV. He started his Hollywood career over 20 years ago as
another detective Sam  Sam Spade, in the celebrated radio series, "The Adventures of Sam Spade."
"I ENJOY the action and the challenge of playing a television detective. It keeps me on my toes mentally and in good shape physically. But I have always viewed myself as an actor
suited to more romantic roles and even Shakespearean roles," Duff says.
"Apparently, however, the intrigue and drama of the detective story is how producers
visualize me, and it has given me a rewarding career. I have been on the side of the law in
over a dozen movies, so I feel comortable in the part.
"I'M GETTING a change of pace this spring," Duff reports. "I go to San Francisco during the production break of 'The Felony Squad' to play in the stage production of 'The Girl In the Freudian Slip.' "Then it's back to Sam Stone for another year  and I'm delighted."

The mellow register of Howard Duff's voice seems to so inexplicably touch the soul of anyone who hears it. Call it a gift, universal appeal, call him 'a natural', call it whatever . . . Whatever that elusive quality was, you can still hear it in every word this remarkable man uttered over an amazing 55 year, multi-media career. He delivered. And he continues to deliver. And despite an amazing career that quite rightfully eclipsed his four and a half years as Sam Spade, it's as Sam Spade that the vast majority of us continue to love him and hang on his every word. It that fair? Perhaps not. I sense that Howard Duff, wherever he is at the moment would view this assessment as pragmatically as he viewed the rest of his storied life. If it works for us, it works for him. Simple, straightforward, matter of fact.

Caption: Lurene Tuttle, Western radio actress, frequently plays in sketches on the CBS Hollywood Showcase (1938)

Lurene Tuttle circa 1940

Lurene Tuttle circa 1957

Lurene Tuttle with Howard Duff
as 'Effie' and Sam Spade circa 1946

Lurene Tuttle with Howard Duff circa 1950

Lurene Tuttle plays a duet at the piano with daughter Barbara

Lurene Tuttle rehearses with Dick Haymes for Everything for The Boys

Lurene Tuttle was also a Mom, one of her great pleasures in life.

Lurene Tuttle in one of her more sultry roles.

Lurene Tuttle shows her amazing versatility yet again.

News clipping about Lurene Tuttle, November 5, 1949

Lurene Tuttle with Rosalind Russell
in the Suspense production of 'The
Sisters' from Dec. 9 1948

Barbara Ruick, daughter of Lurene Tuttle and Mel Ruick circa 1954

Lurene Tuttle served as the first woman President of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists Union

Lurene Tuttle served on the Board of the Screen Actors Guild from 1951-1954
Lurene Tuttle served on the faculty of the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts

Lurene Tuttle's Radiography is arguably the most extensive and versatile in the annals of Golden Age Radio History. There was simply nothing she--and her amazing voice--could not do, and do superbly. She remains this author's all-time favorite radio actress. Lurene Tuttle was born in Pleasant Lake, Indiana in 1907, but was reared out west on a ranch in Arizona near the California border. O.V. Tuttle, her father, had performed in minstrel shows but relied primarily on work as a railroad station agent during the 1920s. Lurene Tuttle's grandfather had been a Drama teacher, managing an opera house at one time in Indiana, her birth state. Lurene studied acting in Phoenix and the cute, petite redhead showed her scene-stealing comedic talent early on.

After she turned 15, her family relocated to Monrovia, California, where Lurene Tuttle began her performing career in earnest. She obtained her formal dramatic training at the Pasadena Playhouse, appearing in many of their productions with great success. She later joined Murphy's Comedians, a vaudeville troupe, and began performing as a dramatic ingénue in stock productions.

Though Broadway eluded her, Lurene Tuttle performed on Stage regularly until the 1930s.

Known for her fine speaking voice and extraordinary range of dialects, The Depression Years lead her to work in Radio, a natural medium for her extraordinary voice talent. For the next 25 years of the Golden Age of Radio, Lurene Tuttle became one of Radio's most recognized voices in virtually every Radio venue in which she performed.

From the August 1947 issue of Radio Mirror, in Lurene Tuttle's Own words:

By Lurene Tuttle

I WONDER if the first "split-personality" a psychologist ever discovered wasn't an actress? And if you're a radio actress as well, believe me--my personality isn't just split, it's all in little pieces.
In the morning I wake up, peer at myself in the mirror and--yes--I can recognize the Ted hair and the grey eyes that belong to Lurene Tuttle; but an hour later I'm standing in front of a microphone, sneering my way through a broadcast as a blackhearted murderess . . . or as an eighty-year-old grandmother . . . or as a brat or as a queen . . or a barmaid.
And that goes on all day long.

Is it any wonder I sometimes wonder just who Lurene Tuttle is? Not only are there all these make-helieve characters I slip in and out of during broadcasting hours--but there's the me that is mother to my teen-age Barbara. And the me that likes to prowl around in dusty antique shops for the little porcelain dogs I collect. And likes to play crazy word games with friends or settle weighty problems over a midnight pot of coffee.
And there's the me that's known around the studios as "The Rock." (It doesn't apply, they tell me, to the way I look; I can't gain an ounce over my hundred and two pounds and I stopped growing at five feet three.) It's short for the Rock of Gibralter, that symbol of stability and dependability. Maybe it's not glamorous, but I'd rather be known as "The Rock" than as almost anything eise, because it indicates that I've been at least a little successful in being where I'm supposed to be when I'm supposed to be there, and in giving the best performance I know how no matter what the part.

I say almost anything else. That means that, above all, I want to be the me that's Barbara's mother. I don't understand actresses who are ashamed to admit they have grown-up daughters. Barbara is in High School, and I see no point in talking about her as "my little girl," trying to disguise my age, as I've heard some do. I'm a lot more apt to brag about her! She's bright and she's pretty and some day I think she'll be showing me how to act.
Barbara's father, Mel Ruick, and I were divorced a few years ago. We're still good friends. Though his radio announcing keeps him in New York, Mel was able to spend Christmas here with Barbara and they are still a close father-and-daughter team. But, for most of the year, it's just the two of us, and Miss Johnson, who looks after us both. And, of course, all of Barbara's friends . . . I'll never forget, for instance, last New Year's Eve. It's seldom I go to a party, but this one I was looking forward to. Yet--promptly at twelve midnight I had to excuse myself, explain hastily to my escort, and drive home and then taxi an assorted bunch of some twenty-five kids from Barbara's party to their respective homes which were scattered all over the San Fernando Valley! I got back to my own party and date at two-thirty in the moming, just as all the other guests were yawning their way out the front door.
But I'm no Big Sister, only, to Babs. I'm her mother. She comes to me with help with her problems as well as for her fun. Whether it's boy-friends or clothes or our endless discussions of what she will do when she's "grownup," I try my honest best to help her. We have our rules, too. When it comes to schoolwork--my share is helping in research, but she's the one to actually do the job.
And there's one opening night I'm looking forward to as intensely as if it were my own premiere of the movie "Heaven Only Knows."

Babs and her gang of friends have made a movie of their own, with themselves as actors, and they tell me its showing is to have an audience of one. The kids have decided that only Mother Tuttle is to be permitted to peek at it, because it seems they feel I'll take a professional attitude and not a parental one . . . and they're afraid of shocking their own families!
I do understand--because I remember wondering how my mother and dad were going to react the first time they saw me kiss a boy on stage!
Between that first kiss and that good part I mentioned in Seymour Nebenzal's "Heaven Only Knows" there have been a lot of years, a lot of disappointments, a lot of hard, hard work.
Before Barbara goes into anything like that, I want her to have all the sound preparation she can get; I want her to have the same safe, lovely life I had as a child. Not that my family was rich, or that I was sheltered from the world. But there had always been affection, family ties, experiences shared.
It was in a small mining town called Johannesburg, on the edge of the California Mojave desert that I spent my childhood.
DAD was station master and every day I met the trains with him. The mines at Johannesburg and Atolia and the Yellow Aster at Ransburg, nearby, were going full blast and it attracted people from all over the country. I was excited by all these colorful people and, unconsciously, I studied them and watched them. Afterwards I would imitate them. Dad always encouraged me, because his own hobby was putting on amateur theatricals.
It wasn't difficult to break into stock companies. For many years I was leading lady for major stock companies, among them the Henry Duffy Players.
Then came the depression--and stock was out. Came my marriage to Mel Ruick and Barbara.
Even if stock companies hadn't gone out of business, though, I had resolved to be a mother, entirely, for the first three years of Barbara's life. That kind of security I felt she needed because I knew how formative are these early years of a child. After that, I felt, she wouldn't need me with her; she would be sure of my love for her. But until she was three years old I had determined to forget the stage.
The time passed. Three years were soon over. Barbara had had everything, so far, that I could give her, and I was ready to go back to work. I was and am an actress; an actress has to act to be happy. But at that point, I suddenly discovered that I was a frustrated housewife with no future in sight. A person doesn't just walk out and get a good part on the stage or in the movies. I hadn't thought at all of radio. I got very, very discouraged indeed.
And all of a sudden a friend, Cy Kendall, called me to say that tryouts for the Hollywood Hotel program were being held at CBS and why didn't I rush right over? But I've never been in front of a microphone in my life, I worried--even as I was putting on my hat and running out the front door. I was scared, all right, but it was a chance to act, and I was passing up no chance at that stage of my career!
At ten o'clock I entered the studio. It was five o'clock before my turn came. But I got the part!
Though I signed a contract with the Hollywood Hotel program for three years, new parts came slowly. Then I heard Charles Vanda of CBS was producing White Fires. I begged for a chance. White Fi res was the weekly dramatic presentation of lives of famous people--just the kind of roles I wanted.
The next week I was on the show, and I stayed with White Fires for two years. I grew with that show.
I learned something very strange about myself, then. In a theater or in a movie you have costumes, and makeup men to change your appearance. But there is nothmg of that in radio. You wear the same dress you wore when you were out shopping an hour before and your make-up is just what you would ordinarily have on the street.
But I swear that with me there is an actual physical as well as emotional change that goes on when I pick up the script and start reading my lines.

The time I spent on White Fires really paid off and nowadays I have so much work it's like hopping on and off a merry-go-round every week, grabbing for the brass ring at every show.
Want to take a ride with me for one week? Here's how it goes--
MONDAY: Breakfast with Barbara. To the movie set of "Heaven Only Knows" (I play Mrs. O'Donnell, the
scrublady). Rehearsal of the Dark Venture radio show at five; broadcast at 9:00 (murderess) .
Tuesday: Movie set in the morning. Rehearsal for Academy Award show (fourteen-year-old girl). Home to spend an hour with Barbara.
Wednesday: Ten o'clock broadcast of serial Masquerade. On to movie set. Back to studio for Academy Award broadcast. Home, to check household accounts and plan week's menus with Miss Johnson.
Thursday: This was the day I almost fell off that merry-go-round. Morning, on "Heaven Only Knows" set in costume and make-up. Since we were going to be shooting off and on all day, I had the bright idea of keeping my scrublady costume on even when I went to broadcasts.

But it didn't work out that way. At 2: 45 when I put in an appearance for the Dick Haymes rehearsal, the director took one horrified look at me and loudly said No! Nothing to do but send a studio page for my own clothes on the set; showed up just in time for me to change and dash over to the first show of Burns and Allen at NBC; back to movie set at 6:30 (and into scrublady costume); back to Burns and Allen again for second show; to Dick Haymes broadcast on CBS; back to movie set again and into scrublady costume for night shooting that lasted until 12: 30 in the morning!
Friday: Up in the morning for Masquerade. Rehearsal then of Star Tune show (tough chorus girl).

For the future I want what every radio actress wants--a show of my own. Top billing, instead of building characters to prop up someone else. And a chance to use originality.
But until that time, I'll go on being "the Rock." It's not so bad really. And it has its rewards. There's a true story about an evening at the Robert Youngs' house where a friend was telling Mrs. Young that her husband was getting to be very popular in radio, in addition to his movie career.
"Why," the friend said, "every time I turn on the radio lately, I hear Bob on some program."
"Yes," Mrs. Young replied, "Bob is getting to be the male Lurene Tuttle of radio."

Aptly referred to as "The First Lady of Radio," she was most fondly remembered for her role as Effie, the deliciously endearing "Girl Friday," to Howard Duff's Sam Spade on The Adventures of Sam Spade. Dyed-in-the-wool Sam Spade fans universally refer to the interaction between Duff and Tuttle as pure Radio magic--and deservedly so. Her comedic timing and interplay with Duff was absolutely superb, rivalled only by the Radio chemistry between Frances Robinson and Bob Bailey in Let George Do It.

By the time Film and early Television discovered her acting talent she found second and third careers as a durable, versatile character actress in a wide range of roles characterized primarily by their depiction of archetypal middle-American wisdom and warmth. Later years found her in recurring characterizations as a 'brittle' world-weary matron.She debuted in Film in Heaven Only Knows (1947), then appeared alongside Cary Grant in Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948) and Room for One More (1952). She performed with Marilyn Monroe in Don't Bother to Knock (1952) and Niagara (1953). She also appeared with Joan Crawford in Goodbye, My Fancy (1951) and Leslie Caron in The Glass Slipper (1955). To Film's everlasting shame, she never got her chance to appear as a lead, not for lack of either versatility or talent. As it was, she continued to develop her talent as a durable, reliable character actor--and occasional scene-stealer.

Indeed her innate ability to steal any scene--on big screen or small--with an impish, knowing grin or world-weary, cynical glance remained two of her signature characterizations throughout her remarkable career. Her only real lead during this period was her portrayal of the crazed Ma Barker, in Ma Barker's Killer Brood (1960), a B-movie that's reached cult status.

Television was more cognizant of Lurene Tuttle's natural warmth and wisdom, which, given the kinder, gentler, family oriented fare of 1950s Television, found her performing regularly in a wonderful array of sitcoms, appearing as a starchy relative, gossipy gadfly, or archetypal down-home townfolk.Lurene Tuttle married fellow actor and announcer, Mel Ruick a performer she met often while both were performing in Radio. Their daughter, Barbara Ruick, became an actress best known for her portrayal of Carrie Pipperidge in the wonderful musical comedy Carousel (1956). Barbara Ruick later married famed American composer John Williams, but died unexpectedly in 1974, just as John Williams' world-renowned talent was becoming recognized.

Lurene Tuttle became a widely-respected Drama and diction coach for several decades. She taught radio technique in the 1940s and re-trained several prominent actors returning from World War II duty. After her Television career in the 1950s, Lurene Tuttle returned to teaching. Her students included Red Skelton, Orson Welles, Milton Berle, Steve Allen, and Jayne Meadows. She joined the faculty of The University of Southern California, teaching acting technique, and remained in Southern California until she succumbed to cancer at the age of 78.

"I have a full life - radio acting, TV shows, movies, and my daily teaching - all crammed with delight. I find that the best way for me to conduct my life is to run my life - my way." -- Lurene Tuttle

Thankfully, her fame endures as new generations of Golden Age Radio and Television fans continue to discover her anew. Thus she remains to this day--and throughout the forseeable future--as one of the most beloved, most enjoyed and most admired voice and character talents of The 20th Century.

1929 The Atwater Kent Radio Hour
1937 The March of Time
1938 Music For Fun
1941 CBS Forecast
1942 Columbia Workshop
1942 Suspense
1943 The American Comedy Theatre Of the Air
1945 Columbia Presents Corwin1946 The Adventures Of Sam Spade1946 The Adventures of the Thin Man
1947 Fibber McGee and Molly
1948 The Clock
1949 Philip Morris Playhouse

June Havoc and husband William Spier circa 1948
Spier was a double recipient of The Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Awards--for Radio's 'The Adventures of Sam Spade' and Television's 'The Untouchables'

William Spier also directed Stage productions such as Midnight At Eight, ca 1958

Spier won the coveted George Foster Peabody Award three times for CBS.

Spier married the beautiful June Havoc--Actress, Playwright, Director in her own right--in 1948

Born and raised in New York City, William Spier's extraordinary Media Arts career began with Radio. Spier's first major production was in 1929 with the Atwater Kent Radio Hour, which he both produced and directed--at the age of 23. By 1936 was directing Radio's long-running The March of Time.

When he joined the Columbia Broadcasting System in 1940, Bill Spier had already been a top-flight radio writer, producer and director for twelve years. He soon became Chief of the Writers' Department and Director of Scripts for the Columbia Broadcasting System in 1940, while co-producing Suspense (1942) and Duffy's Tavern (1941). By 1947, he'd shared a prestigious Edgar Award from The Mystery Writers of America--with writers Bob Tallman and Jason James--for Best Radio Drama with their The Adventures of Sam Spade (1946). The Edgar is a porcelain bust of the patron saint of mystery drama scriveners, Edgar Allen Poe. William Spier later won another Best Television Drama Edgar in 1962 for The Untouchables. Spier was also awarded three George Foster Peabody Awards while with CBS.

As brilliant as his work on Suspense, Duffy's Tavern and 'Sam Spade' was, it was his contributions to CBS Forecast and Columbia Workshop that established his reputation as a fearless, innovative, calculated-risk taker with a brilliant intuition about what creates truly great Radio. Spier's 'gut-sense' for great Radio transcended technology, scriptwriting, or simple talent selection. Spier quite simply knew what would work and what wouldn't. And sure, it was a mixture of timing, talent, production technology, script selection and flawless direction. But there was also that intangible Spier element--the pinch of saffron if you will. Whatever it was, Spier possessed it his entire career. An amateur magician in his own right, it's tempting to simply call it magic. But Spier was also a life-long Music fan. So perhaps it's more fitting to call it music. In the end, as with the many intangibles associated with The Golden Age of Radio, some intangibles simply can't be dissected. They simply were what they were and the result was consistently great Radio.

A genuine Radio man William Spier seemed to have continually focused on scripts, scripts and more scripts. Indeed, he's supposed to have read all scripts that were submitted to CBS while he was Director of Scripts. We noted that above. But he had also drawn up an instruction sheet for mailing to all free-lance writers who requested it "to save writers a lot of time and effort in preparing scripts which otherwise must be unusable so far as our show is concerned."

Clearly, scripts weren't his only focus. It was widely reported that Spier was an absolute stickler for realism. One interesting anecdote from his Suspense years went as follows:

"Spier goes in for realism during a broadcast. There was the time Lucille Ball starred in "Dime a Dance." Extras were hired to dance to an orchestra in one studio to create the dance hall background and Miss Ball emoted with the cast in a studio a block away."

A perfectionist, Spier's attention to all production values extended to every facet of a production, especially foley work. Citing the failure of sound effects as "the deadliest moment in Radio," Spier once reminisced about Suspense when guns didn't go off as scheduled:

"Once an actor cried "Don't shoot me!", nothing happened, and another actor came to the rescue by exclaiming "Okay, I'll use this knife!" Recently, when William Bendix did "Three Faces for Midnight" two guns balked; finally one delivered the fatal bang."

"During one crime melodrama on Sam Spade, a sound effect gunshot went off too close to Miss Havoc and actually set her skirt on fire! Trouper that she was, she kept calmly reading her script--of course the show was going out live (although likely being transcribed for later broadcast to the "other" coast) while the control booth went nuts and the props guy threw some water on her. If Bill Spier hadn't been in love with her already, her sang-froid while literally on fire, let alone under it, would have sealed the deal! And Miss Havoc says that's what won her admission in the special cadre of radio actors."

Another instructive anecdote captures Spier's out of the box thought processes regarding what the Columbia Broadcasting System referred to as Experimental Radio with their ground-breaking Columbia Workshop project:

"The Columbia Workshop, testing ground for many a new radio ideas adds another link to its chain of experiments when it produces chapter one of "Flight to Arras" current No. 1 non-fiction best seller by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. . . . Not only has "Flight to Arras" never before been done in any form in radio, but this is the first lime Columbia Workshop has picked the first chapter out of a book and presented its pages in radio form. The production cannot in truth be called a dramatization, because no attempt is made to dramatize the author's words. "I would rather," says William Spier, the program's producer, "call the attempt a 'radioization.'" Audience reaction on the experiment is being solicited by Columbia Workshop because, if successful, many books of literary value are thus opened for radio production."

Spier's record of achievement didn't end with Radio. Spier continued on into Television, adding over forty writing, directing and producing credits to his resume. Spier was also active in local New England Stage productions and Television specials right up until he passed away in 1973 at the age of 67. He was survived by his wife of twenty-five years, June Havoc, a gifted actress, director and writer in her own right.

Lovely Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagogg-
chaubunagungamaugg as it might have appeared during the Sam Spade Radio years.

A Connecticut native, beloved local--and national--Radio announcer Richard 'Dick' Joy got his start in Radio by airing some bit announcements and fill for local Los Angeles, California radio stations while attending Journalism School at the University of Southern California. After graduation from U.S.C. he became a staff announcer for the Hearst radio station, KEHE. Joy later became a staff announcer for L.A.'s CBS flagship station, Radio KNX. When Joy joined the CBS Radio network, at 21, he was their youngest staff announcer in history. Within three years, Joy entered active duty during World War II with the U.S. Naval Reserve.

During the War, Joy wrote and broadcast for the Navy's contingent of the Armed Forces Radio Service, recording the intros for Downbeat and 'Hello, Americans', among several other patriotic War effort productions.

Upon returning from the War he partnered in the construction and operation of Radio KCMJ, the voice of Palm Springs, California. Joy remained in Southern California to become the announcer for such long-running programs as Silver Theatre, The Adventures Of Sam Spade, Vox Pop, The Telephone Hour, and the Danny Kaye, Nat King Cole, and Spike Jones shows.

Not just a 'talking head' but rather a serious, full-time journalist, Dick Joy pioneered the use of a running series of 'voice bites' to punctuate and bring normally dull news narratives to life with fast-paced, succinct snippets illustrating news items. He worked with CBS News Producer Barney Miller, to create CBS Sunday Desk, the first news-capsule program to employ such voice and sound 'bites'.

Joy returned to KNX as a newscaster from 1950 - 1956, overlapping that job with work as News Director of the L.A. classical music station KFAC, a position he held from 1951 - 1967.

Dick had made a successful transition to CBS Television in the late 1940s as a reporter for CBS’ You Are There, and later as the announcer for December Bride, Perry Mason, Have GunWill Travel, Daktari, Lost in Space, and Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C. The high point of his announcing career was while he worked for CBS Television's legendary Playhouse 90, which brought him in weekly contact with Drama's best, brightest, and most talented for four years.

Throughout those years, he freelanced in Radio and Television, while maintaining his position as News Director at KFAC. Joy spent a total of 35 years in the L.A. area, broadcasting before his retirement in 1969. He ultimately retired to the Medford Oregon area in 1975.

And yet despite this extraordiary career in Commercial and Public Communications, Dick Joy is probably most fondly remembered to this day, as the announcer for the 1940s' The Adventures of Sam Spade . . . Detective. Indeed it was Joy's own punctuation of the word 'Detective' in those weekly broadcasts that so firmly associated Dick Joy with that famous series of Golden Age Radio broadcasts.

One of the most fascinating and enduring anecdotes about Dick Joy's poise and professionalism arouse out of the famous--or infamous--The Indian Caper, or more accurately and authentically titled:

The Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchau-bunagungamaugg Caper

As the story goes, in Massachusetts, there is a town named Webster, located on the shores of Webster Lake. Apparently the actual Nipmuc Indian name of the lake is one of the longest place names in the world. A writer for The Adventures of Sam Spade was determined to work that name into an episode of 'Sam Spade'. The name became the working title for the script that aired September 25, 1949, The Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchau-bunagungamaugg Caper.

Knowing Dick Joy's reputation for being one of Radio's most poised, unflappable, and elecutory professionals, the writers and the crew conspired to play a little practical joke on Joy. Accordingly, when they rehearsed the script, they contrived to keep the title page of the episode out of Dick Joy's copy of the script--until the actual live broadcast was underway.

William Spier directed their first customary commercial break, after which they'd return and announce the 'caper' for the evening. And so as Joy completed his Wildroot Cream Oil plug, the crew handed him the infamous title page to the script, all grinning from ear to ear in anticipation of finally flummoxing the legendary Dick Joy.

He took the page, cleared his throat and seamlessly recited, "And now we return to The Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchau-bunagungamaugg Caper, brought to you by Wildroot Hair Oil."

Letter perfect, no hesitation, no faltering, no flub. Perfect. The crew's joke lay shattered, most of them muttering under their breath, 'How in heck did he manage that!??!"

What none of them could have known, least of all former New Englander William Spier, was that Joy had grown up in none other than Webster, Massachusetts.

Richard W. 'Dick' Joy, 75, veteran Radio and Television announcer died at his home in Talent, Oregon, of complications from liver disease. His legacy lives on through thousands of Radio recordings stamped with Joy's unmistakable, bell-clear, concise baritone narrations. He's remembered--and will continue to be remembered--as one of Radio's most unmistakable voices and one of Radio's most likeable personalities.

Steve Dunne pretty much as himself in The Andy Griffith Program from Jan. 23, 1967

Steve Dunne appearing in The Brady Bunch from 1971

Brown-haired, blue-eyed Steve [Francis] Dunne was born and raised in Northampton, Massachusetts. He got his start in his working life as a stenographer for the local General Electric Company, but at the age of 17 determined to increase his knowledge. He entered the University of Alabama, majoring in Drama and Journalism.

To finance school he secured a job as a disc-jockey at the local radio station. He liked it--so much so that he quit school and moved to Chicagoland where he became a top-flight Radio announcer. From there he took the leap of faith to the Big Apple and WOR, New York, and the Mutual Broadcasting System.

New York employment led to a screen test and a movie contract that eventually netted him featured roles in 30 films. Steve Dunne met Vivian Bellveau in 1940. They married and soon had two children--Stephen and Christina. His Film work took him back to the West Coast, where he hooked up with Southern California Radio and Television stations under the CBS Network.

By the 1950s a locally popular fixture on KTSL, the CBS Flagship Television station, Dunne stayed busy with local origination quiz shows, late-night movie retrospectives, and the occasional Film role. His first real break in Radio came with the premature, short-lived cancellation of the Golden Age Radio classic, The Adventures of Sam Spade, formerly starring Howard Duff as Sam Spade. Clouded in obfuscation, no believable reason was ever cited for the cancellation of the program. Inundated by negative correspondence, NBC frantically resuscitated the program as The New Adventures of Sam Spade while racing around to reassemble what was left of the crew, direction, scripts and actors. The following newspaper clipping pretty much sums up the selection process:

"THE NEW Sam Spade, one of radio's most rewarding acting plums, is Steve Dunne. A veteran actor with 30 film credits and hundreds of West Coast radio and TV performances under his belt, Dunne was selected for the part in Hollywood by Director-Producer William Spier after a score of radio actors were auditioned. He now carries on his San Francisco capers on "The New Adventures of Sam Spade" at 8:30 P.M. Fridays on WSYR, playing opposite Lurene Tuttle, still heard in the
role of Effie, his secretary. Dunne succeeded Howard Duff in the title role. He was called up for the private eye assignment as a result of a five-year-old note scribbled and filed by Spier. In 1945, the producer saw a movie, "Shock," in which Dunne played a small part. Spier never met or interviewed the actor until this year, when he sought the new Sam Spade after checking his file."

Now the newest Sam Spade on the radio, Dunne was wisely hedging his bets with a featured daily appearance on the newly launched Jack Kirkwood Show on radio. He continued to work at CBS Television station KTSL and continued to develop even more ambitious plans to augment his Sam Spade success. But alas, the Sam Spade role was embarassingly short-lived. Running for only 24 'new' installments, the Adventures of Sam Spade--'New' or otherwise--came to an abrupt end at the end of April 1951.

Dunne for his part, continued to announce the commercials on What's the Name of That Song and narrate Stranger Than Fiction, in addition to starting his own program in a disc-jockey setting 'spinning platters' of 'soundie' vignettes for a call-in audience to guess at. The resulting program, Picture Platters, was relatively short-lived as well.

Dunne's career didn't lack for brushes with greatness. In 1949, Dunne starred in Columbia's Kazan (1949), with Lois Maxwell, the leggy secretary of James Bond Film fame. He did get a full six-months of acting lessons from Lurene Tuttle in the short lived New Adventures of Sam Spade. He made an erstwhile connection with famed CBS producer William Spier and his wife, June Havoc. But he later somewhat embarassingly stabbed June Havoc in the professional back by making her the goat over a silly on-screen credit kerfuffle.

The rolling credits for James Mason's 1952 film Lady Possessed said 'Introducing Steve Dunne'. Of course by that time, Dunne had already appeared in some 31 minor and feature films already. He passed it around that the Director's wife and co-star June Havoc was the one raising a ruckus about having to share on-screen credit with Dunne. Understandably, any goodwill Dunne had accrued with famed Director William Spier and his equally famous actress wife, June Havoc vanished in a thrice.

A shameless self-promoter, Dunne had compiled a long record of self-promoting, self-advancing strategies during his long employment with KTSL in Los Angeles. From his various TV disc-jockey programs, to his Love and Kisses (1950) situation comedy, to his nightly sign offs on KTSL to his short-lived Professional Father (1955) series, Dunne was never one to miss any opportunity to paint himself in a better professional light.

Sadly, almost all of these exploits seem to have continually resulted in somewhat short-lived professional showcases of his talent. He continued to compile a longer Film and Television resume, but he never again found that dream shot, like The New Adventures of Sam Spade had promised to be.

Dunne's career was not without its lighter moments. Witness this amusing account of a live 'wardrobe malfunction' during the early years of live Television situation comedy:

"Why actors prefer filmed TV:Steve Dunne raced off stage for a wardrobe change while emoting in CBS' "My Favorite Husband." The overzealous wardrobe man in his haste not only pulled off Steve's trousers, but his shorts, too. Joan Caulfield and Barry Nelson had to ad lib while Steve recovered his dignity in the wings."

With some 80+ Television appearances to his credit, Dunne certainly proved his durability in the medium. Indeed his Television career pretty much paralleled his Radio career with a dizzying array of 'almosts' over the span of twenty-five years. If there was an Emmy for "picking yourself up, dusting yourself off, and starting all over again," Steve Dunne may very well have been a perennial award recipient. But alas it didn't pan out that way.

Doomed to be remembered as either the local L.A. TV personality that made good, or the actor that finally killed Sam Spade, neither prospect has a great deal to offer in the form of historical import. But that's not being fair, either. In the case of Sam Spade, that was NBC's incompetent bungling and no one else's. That William Spier, Lurene Tuttle, and Steve Dunne even managed to throw together another 24 episodes is a tribute to the three of them, all things considered.

As for the rest of Steve Dunne's ostensibly lackluster career, the 'luster' is clearly in the eyes of the beholder. In a market as huge as Southern California, Dunne could have simply soldiered on-- locally--and done very well for himself, thank you very much. Did his reach exceed his grasp? Possibly. But at least he reached.